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THE ATONEMENT 

OR 

HUMAN NATURE AND REDEMPTION 



THE ATONEMENT 

OR 

HUMAN NATURE AND 
EEDEMPTION 



BY 

JOHN W. LEA 



eniCAGO : 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR AT 

834. W. 61ST STREET 

1909 

1636 N. KEDFIEIDST. 

PHILADELPHIA, PA. 






f£B 2t)ifit 



PKEFACE 

The teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, as summarized in 
Acts 8 : 13, consisted of two parts — the things concerning the 
kingdom of God^ and the name of Jesus Christ. Though inti- 
mately connected, they are essentially distinct. This little 
volume is confined to the presentation of the things concern- 
ing the name of Jesus Christ — the relation between His re- 
deeming work and human nature and destiny. Its appeal is 
to the devout but distressed — those who recognize the Bible 
as the inspired Word of God, but are perplexed by the un- 
reasonable doctrines that have been propounded in its name, 
and distressed by the extreme conclusions of modern criti- 
cism. The author has endeavored to show that the Bible, 
rightly imderstood, contains reasonable views of God and 
man and the Atonement. He sincerely hopes that those who 
read may reap eternal benefit. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Introduction 7 

II The Origin of Death . . . . . . 17 

III The Nature of Man 24 

IV A Consideration of Some Passages Thought 

TO Teach Natural Immortality ... 57 

V Hell 70 

VI Satan . 89 

VII Theories of the Atonement . . . . 103 

VIII The Trinity 110 

IX God in Christ 131 

X Obedience and Sacrifice 137 

XI Eedemption 144 

XII How May Eedemption be Participated in by 

Us? 153 

XIII Conclusion 163 



CHAPTEE I. INTEODUCTION 

The Jewish nation had fallen into a condition of wide- 
spread degeneracy when John the Baptist appeared as the 
last and greatest herald of the Redeemer. An earlier prophet 
had said of him : "The voice of him that crieth in the wilder- 
ness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the 
desert a highway for onr God" (Isa. 40: 3). At the time of 
his appearance all classes of the people had forsaken the right 
ways of the Lord, and were heedless of His commands. Their 
position as a kingdom had been lost, and they were tributary 
to the Eoman power. The high-priesthood was held by men 
who were filled with worldly ambition and love of gain rather 
than a sincere desire to administer God^s righteous law. The 
people were divided into opposing sects, each seeking to 
establish its own "righteousness." 

Added to this degenerate condition was a sense of doubt 
and expectancy — doubt, because amid the conflict of the sects 
men knew not which way to turn; expectancy, because there 
was a general foreboding of some great change about to take 
place in the nation. Hope of a deliverer, who should free 
them from a hostile yoke, had been kindled by a prophecy of 
Daniel : 

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy 
city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to 
make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteous- 
ness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most 
Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth 
of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah 
the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the 



8 THE ATONEMENT 

street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And 
after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for 
Himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy 
the city and the sanctuary; and the end shall be with a flood, and 
unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall 
confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of 
the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and 
for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even 
until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon 
the desolator (Dan. 9: 24-27). 

These times had almost run their course when the prophet 
who had dwelt in the desert came forth with the thrilling cry, 
"Eepent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." His per- 
son and manner Avere entirely different from those of the 
scribes and the Pharisees. He had been brought up amid the 
wild surroundings of the desert, and his vigor had not been 
impaired by the luxurious living of the towns. His food had 
been locusts and wild honey and his drink the crystal stream. 
His education had not been in the traditions which ages of 
Pharisaism had superimposed upon the law, but he had been 
trained for his lofty mission by seclusion with nature and 
with God. He entered into his work in an entirely earnest 
spirit. The unbelief of the Sadducees, the worldliness of the 
Herodians, the pride and hypocrisy of the Pharisees had no 
place in him. All could see that a teacher of a new order had 
arisen, whose enthusiasm gave weight to his proclamations; 
and vast multitudes flocked to the banks of the Jordan, when 
the voice began to cry "Eepent." 

]^o wonder John's preaching produced a marked impression 
on his hearers. He was bold and fearless in denouncing the 
evil of those around him, not hesitating to rebuke either the 
pride of the Pharisees, the extortion of the tax-gatherers, or 
the injustice of tlie soldiers. He was emboldened by the 
purity of his own life to testify against the corruptions of 
others; and such was the impression his preaching produced 



INTEODUCTION 9 

that all men mused in their hearts whether he were the 
Messiah of whom Daniel had spoken. Jolin, however, was 
not the Messiah, but His forerunner; so mth humility he 
resented such an estimate as some were beginning to form of 
him, in words which have been preserved by all the evangel- 
ists: "One mightier than I cometh after me, the latchet of 
whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose." 

When John commenced his ministry, the greater One he 
heralded was still at the village home at ISTazareth; but when 
the time had fully come for His manifestation. He came to 
the place where John was baptizing. John, seeing Him afar 
off, recognizing Him, and comprehending His sublime mis- 
sion, exclaimed to those around him who had come to be bap- 
tized of him : ^^Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away 
the sin of the world ! This is He of whom I said, After me 
cometh a Man which is become before me, for He was first in 
regard of me" (John 1: 29, 30, E. V. margin). Jesus was 
now openly manifested to the people, and John^s work as a 
herald was completed. By his preaching he had prepared the 
way of the Lord, and now the Lord had come. The One 
mightier than John must now begin His public ministry and 
more fully reveal the salvation of which John had spoken. 

The mission of Jesus is disclosed in the title which John 
ascribed to him — "The Lamb of God, which taketh away the 
sin of the world." His name Jesus was also expressive of His 
work, for as interpreted by an angel of the Lord it signified 
that He should "save His people from their sins." His life 
and death were both foreshadowed in John's words, and the 
minds of his hearers would be taken back to the regular sacri- 
fices for sin, and to the annual feast of expiations on the day 
of atonement. In each case the offering involved the death of 
the victim offered, and only those that were in their prime and 
free from spot or blemish were acceptable to God. Thus the 
pure life of the Redeemer and His death when in His prime 



10 THE ATONEMENT 

were both implied in John's exclamation : ^^Behold, the Lamb 
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world/^ 

The great offering for sin, however, was not to be made 
immediately after this public manifestation of Jesus as the 
Lamb of God. It was to be preceded by a time of preaching 
concerning the salvation which God had provided. For more 
than three years the Savior traversed the land, proclaiming 
in all its towns and villages wonderful words of love and life. 
He revealed by word and by act that His mission was divine. 
Like John, He gave evidence that as a religious Teacher He 
was far above the Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the scribes. 
His ministry was one continual round of blessing. He healed 
the sick of divers diseases, giving sight to the blind, hearing 
to the deaf, speech to the dumb, and the power to leap and 
praise God to those who were lame. On three recorded occa- 
sions He raised to life those whom death had claimed, and 
restored them to their sorrowing friends. But, despite the 
holiness of His life. He suffered persecution and martyrdom 
at the hands of those to whom He preached. He did not 
hesitate to rebuke, both by word and by act, the h3^ocrisy 
and iniquity of His contemporaries. His whole career must 
have been an enigma which they could not solve. Some few 
there were who listened to Him with glad hearts, and treas- 
ured up the divine utterances which fell from His lips. 
Others, struck by His steadfastness and zeal, and convinced 
by His manifestation of more than ordinary power, were con- 
strained to confess that His mission was more than human, 
but they were still unwilling to render that full obedience 
that He demanded, and viewed Him rather with curiosity 
than sincere admiration. Some were so far moved by His 
preaching as on one occasion to endeavor to take Him by 
force and make Him their King ; but when He consented not, 
their minds must have been filled with consternation. By 
many, especially by the upper classes. He was met with hatred 



INTBODUCTION 11 

and derision; mocking His claims, they hated Him because 
His perfect holiness convicted them of sin. Not all the noble 
purity of His life and teaching, nor the beneficence of His 
marvelous works of healing, sufficed to draw forth the ad- 
miration and esteem of those who rested in the satisfaction 
of their own imagined righteousness. As the light of His 
testimony against them could in no other way be extin- 
guished, they resolved to put Him to death, and took means 
to accomplish it which accorded with their general character. 
They could not accuse Him of any crime, so they invented 
lies. Many bare false witness against Him, but their testi- 
mony did not agree. They falsely accused Him of blasphemy 
and would have put Him to death if they could, but, being 
subject to Eome, they had not the power. They then pre- 
ferred a charge of treason, urging that He was setting forth 
claims that were opposed to the authority of Caesar; and al- 
though the governor, Pilate, was aware that the charge was 
false, his cowardice was prevailed upon and he gave his con- 
sent to Jesus' death. At the hands of a multitude of merci- 
less foes He was subjected to a long succession of humiliating 
tortures as a preliminary to crucifixion. He was faint with 
long anxiety and watching, and physically worn out through 
mental anguish. Exposed to the wicked mockings of a god- 
less crowd. He was buffeted and spat upon and made the ob- 
ject of railings, taunts, and sneers. In cruel sport the sol- 
diers plaited a crown of thorns and placed it on His head, 
clothing Him with purple, and placing in His hand a reed 
for a scepter, exclaiming in bitter sarcasm, "Hail, King of the 
Jews V When the nails had pierced His sinless hands and 
feet, and the last agonies of that dreadful death had filled His 
whole body with extreme anguish. His sublime teaching was 
maliciously flung at Him, and His matchless works of love 
and mercy were perverted to bear witness against Him, in 
questions which bespoke the intensity of the evil which was 



12 THE ATONEMENT 

in HiwS murderers' hearts, and their ntter unworthiness and 
inability to comprehend Him and His divine mission: "Let 
the Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, 
that we may see and believe f "He saved others, let Him save 
Himself, if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen;'-' "Ha, 
Thou that destroy est the temple and bnildest it in three days, 
save Thyself and come down from the cross." And when 
the dreadful suffering parched His tongue, and He cried, "I 
thirst," and again, '^Eloi, Eloi, lama sahacthani — My God, 
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" they filled a sponge 
with vinegar and held it to Him on the end of a reed, again 
in cruel sport exclaiming: "Let be, let us see whether Elijah 
will come to take Him down." 

Thus was the Lamb of God slain for the sins of the world. 
Thus was He who knew no sin made a sin-offering for all 
mankind. Thus did the noblest of all earth's sons, and the 
well-beloved Son of God, expire, through death to vanquish 
death and ransom men. Though a victim to the malice of 
His sin-stained foes. He was also the spotless Lamb of God, 
to take away the sin of the world. In the development of 
Jehovah's purpose His death was necessary, but that fact in 
no wise frees His murderers or palliates their crime. They 
did not slay Him in the recognition of this, but with their 
hearts filled with all ill-will. Yet Jesus died as the Lamb of 
God, the Antitype of all the lambs that had been slain at the 
annual feast of expiations or atonement, and the Antitype 
of all the paschal lambs that had been slain in commemoration 
of Israel's deliverance from the bitter serfdom of Egypt. 

What nobility of character the Eedeemer displayed in that 
most trying ordeal ! No word of retaliation escaped His lips 
when thus buffeted and scorned. On the other hand, sus- 
tained by His love to God and His love to men, and by the 
prospect of an assured joy to follow. He manifested a com- 
plete resignation to the dreadful agony, and in His last deep 



INTRODUCTION 13 

anguish exclaimed: "Father, forgive them, for they know 
not what they do." 

Those who clamored for His death thought that thereby all 
His preaching and influence would be ended. They could not 
have made a greater mistake. Ages before, the Psalmist had 
sung: "Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol, neither wilt 
Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption'^ (Psalm 16 : 
10, R. V.) — a prophecy to be fulfilled in the experience of 
Jesus, as may be seen from its application to Him by Peter 
in his memorable Pentecostal address. Jesus was the Holy 
One of God, "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from 
sinners, in whose mouth was no guile.'' It was impossible 
that death should triumph over Him. Though He died that 
He might take away the world's sin and make redemption 
possible, death could not hold Him in an eternal grasp. God 
loosed the cords of death and opened the imprisoning grave, 
and raised to everlasting life His well-beloved Son. Death 
has now no more dominion over Him, and man's redemption 
has been made a glorious possibility. 

When Jesus was slain as the Lamb of God, many thousands 
of lambs were sacrificed at the great passover feast. But 
how much did the offering of Jesus surpass them! By Him 
it has been made possible for the sin of the world to be re- 
moved, and eternal redemption obtained, one offering per- 
fecting for ever the mighty work; while the paschal lambs 
were offered yearly, and were powerless to cleanse from sin. 

Jesus was also the Antitype of the lamb that was offered 
on the day of atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month, 
at the feast of expiations, which annual offering effected a 
temporary putting away of sin, and in dim outline fore- 
shadowed the perfect Atonement through Christ. The epis- 
tle to the Hebrews contains a beautiful commentary on the 
typical nature of the sacrifices under the law, and the sur- 
passing grandeur of their realization in Christ; and in the 



14 THE ATONEMENT 

10th chapter the writer sa3^s : "For the law having a shadow 
of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, 
can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year 
continually make the comers thereunto perfect;" and of the 
work of Christ he says : "But this Man, after He had offered 
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of 
God ; from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His 
footstool. For by one offering He hath perfected forever 
them that are sanctified." 

All Christians rejoice in the fact that Jesus is the Lamb of 
God which taketh away the sin of the world. It is a fact' 
radiant with hope and heavenly comfort, a fact which re- 
veals the excellence of the love of God and of Christ, a fact 
which alone can satisfy the heart that recognizes its own 
feebleness and longs for holiness and strength. "For God so 
loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life" (John 3: 16). In his first epistle John says: 
"God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward 
us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the 
world, that we might live through Him" (I John 4: 8, 9). 
Paul, in writing to Titus, refers to "our Savior Jesus Christ ; 
who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all 
iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous 
of good works" (Titus 2: 13, 14). To the Ephesians and 
Colossians he said: "In whom we have redemption through 
His blood, the forgiveness of sins" (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1: 14) ; 
and to the Eomans he mentions "the redemption that is in 
Christ Jesus" (Eom. 3: 24). Peter says in his first epistle: 
"Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, 
silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tra- 
dition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of 
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (I 
Peter 1: 18, 19). Again, John says: "The blood of Jesus 



INTRODUCTION 15 

Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (I John 1:7); 
and in the opening chapter of the Eevelation he ascribes 
glory and dominion "unto Him that loved us, and washed ns 
from our sins in His own blood, and hath made ns kings and 
priests unto God and His Father" (Eev. 1 : 5, 6). 

Though these and many other passages testify to the great- 
ness of the work of Christ, and its efficacy in redeeming others 
from sin; and though all Christians are prepared to believe 
in Clirist's atoning work; yet the subject has always been 
one of controversy, and many theories have been propounded 
both as to the need for the Atonement and as to its nature. 
The object of these chapters is to set forth the teaching of 
the Scriptures on the matter, and to exhibit the doctrine there 
revealed in contradistinction to the theories that have been 
advanced. 

The importance of the subject none can overestimate, for 
it embraces all that is of value in relation to future life. The 
Lord Jesus said, in a prayer to His Father: "This is life 
eternal,^that they might know Thee the only true God, and 
Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." To know God, and 
Jesus Christ His Son, is something more than a mere knowl- 
edge of the truths that are revealed concerning the Father 
and the Son. It is necessary to know them by communion 
of life, though a knowledge of the recorded facts is of prime 
importance as a basis for a life of holiness and good works. 

The knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ is the highest 
possible attainment. "Let not the wise man glory in his 
wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let 
not the rich man glory in his riches ; but let him that glorieth 
glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I 
am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and 
righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, 
saith the Lord" (Jer. 9: 23, 24). The attainment of riches 
is a pursuit which can only end in death. The present pos- 



16 THE ATONEMENT 

session of great physical strength is of but temporary value, 
for that strength will wane. But he that glorieth in the 
Lord,, and exults in the performance of His will, shall reap 
the rich fruits thereof in the pardon of all transgressions, in 
a peace which passeth knowledge, and ultimately in being 
made partaker of the divine nature, equal to the angels, to die 
no more. It is hard for the mere worldling to believe in the 
obscure Kazarene through whom all this has been made possi- 
ble; but they whose faith is sufficient to enable them to be- 
lieve on the Redeemer shall endure in unending glory, when 
the glory of the mere worldling is faded and gone. 



CHAPTEE II. THE ORIGI^t qF DEATH 

For if, while ive were enemies, we were reconciled to God 
hy the death of His Son, much more, teing reconciled, we 
shall be saved hy His life. And not only so, hut we also joy - 
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, hy whom we have 
now received the Atonement. — Bom. 5: 10, 11. 

The word atonement is composed of three parts, at-one- 
ment, and signifies the uniting of some things that were be- 
fore separate. As applied to individuals it indicates the 
reconciling, or bringing together in harmony, of some who 
were previously at enmity, or estranged. But when we speak 
of tlie Atonement we attach a limited meaning to it, and re- 
strict its application to the great work of redemption which 
centers in Jesiis of j^azareth, the Son of God. 

The word ^^atonement" occurs many times in the Old Testa- 
ment in connection with the ordinances of the Mosaic law, but 
it is only found once in the New Testament, in Eom. 5 : 11. 
Quoting from vs. 8 for the sake of the connection, we read: 

But God commendetli His love toward us, in that, wMle we were 
yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified 
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, 
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of 
His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 
And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ, by whom we have now received the Atonement, 

In the text of the Revised Version, and the margin of the 
Authorized, the word ^^reconciliation^^ is given; so that these 
two words, "atonement" and "reconciliation," may be used 
interchangeably. 



18 THE ATONEMENT 

Although the word "atonement" is only found once in the 
New Testament, the words "reconcile," "reconciling," and 
"reconciliation" occur frequently. In illustration of the 
meaning of these terms. Matt. 5 : 24 may be cited, where the 
Lord Jesus says, in exhorting those who are the objects of any 
ill-will on the part of their brethren not to approach God in 
worship until that feeling is removed and harmony again 
exists : 

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remem- 
berest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift 
before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, 
and then come and offer thy gift. 

The words "reconcile," "reconciling," and "reconciliation" 
are used by the apostles in speaking of the work of Christ, 
in passages which it will be needful to quote in a later 
chapter. 

It will be necessary for us, in the course of our inquiry, 
to first see the need for atonement, and to do so we must 
think of the beginning of the things connected with the 
human race, when "the Lord God planted a garden eastward, 
in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed" 
(Gen. 2:8). It was Jehovah's purpose in the creation of 
man to manifest His glory and sovereign majesty in him; but 
this was to be done through obedience. The creation of Adam 
is recorded in Gen. 2 : 7, in terms which clearly indicate his 
"earthy" origin: 

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a liv- 
ing soul. 

The first part of the verse shows that man was formed of the 
dust. He was, as Paul says, "of the earth, earthy" (I Cor. 
15: 47). As so formed he was perfect in organization, but 
lacked life. He was like a machine whose construction is per- 



THE ORIGIN OP DEATH 19 

feet, but which .will not perform its work until the motive 
power is supplied. Adam was formed perfect in organization, 
but in order to the performance of the functions which the 
Almight}^ destined for him it was necessary that he should 
receive the breath of life. So the Lord God ^^breathed into 
his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." 
He was constituted of the earth, earthy, and animated by the 
breath of life; but his destiny was as yet unfixed. He was 
not immortal, or he never could have died. Neither was he 
yet doomed to return to inanimate dust. He was placed in 
the garden of Eden on probation. If obedient to the divine 
will, he would, doubtless, have been crowned with glory, 
honor, and incorruptibility. If disobedient, his disobedience 
would result in death. Only one command is recorded as 
having been given for him to obey, and upon its observance 
or non-observance, obedience or disobedience, depended life or 
death. 

And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of 
Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the 
man, saying. Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but 
of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: 
for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Gen. 2: 
15-17). 

In the third chapter of Genesis the result of the probation 
is set forth. The man failed. When temptation sprang from 
another of the creatures of God's handiwork, the woman who 
had been given to the man for a companion partook of the 
fruit of the forbidden tree, and gave also to her husband, and 
he also transgressed. The inspired record thus narrates the 
event : 

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which 
the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman. Yea, hath 
God said. Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the 
woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees 



20 THE ATONEMENT 

of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst 
of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye 
touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall 
not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, 
then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing 
good and evil. And Avhen the woman saw that the tree was good 
for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired 
to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and 
gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat (Gen. 3: 1-6).' 

This was the first sin, for sin is transgression of divine 
law. The command having been broken, it was necessary that 
the penalty which had been mentioned as dependent on such 
transgression should be enforced; and in the sentence which 
was pronounced upon Adam, these words occur : 

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return 
unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, 
and unto dust shalt thou return (Gen. 3: 19). 

Many theories have been advanced as to the nature of 
Adam's transgression, but the reader who is guided by the 
Word cannot accept any sophistical exposition which would 
nullify the plain teaching of the third chapter of Genesis. 
It has been variously suggested that the serpent was an emo- 
tion, a monkey, or a man, and also that the serpent was only 
used as an instrument by a supernatural devil, who, from 
within the serpent, conducted the temptation. The Scripture 
lends no countenance to any of these views. The language 
used by Moses is quite intelligible as it stands. It is no more 
wonderful that the serpent had the power of speech than that 
Balaam's ass was so endowed on one occasion. Those who 
accept the latter need have no difficulty in accepting the 
former. The apostle Paul speaks of the serpent as though he 
believed the narrative as it stands. He sa5^s: ^^But I fear, 
lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his 
Bubtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the sim- 



THE ORIGIN OF DEATH 21 

plieity that is in Christ" (II Cor. 11: 3). It has also been 
suggested that the tree of knowledge of good and evil was 
not a tree at all : but there is nothing in the Scripture narra- 
tive to warrant us in believing it was anything else. 

Dismissing all these theories as incapable of proof, and ac- 
cepting the record as given by Moses, we see that a command 
was given to Adam not to eat of the fruit of a particular tree ; 
that Adam transgressed in partaking of the forbidden fruit; 
that through his disobedience access to the tree of life was cut 
off, and he was condemned to die after a period of toil and 
sorrow; and that the human race descended from him has suf- 
fered the consequence of his transgression in being cut off 
from the tree of life, and in possessing a corruptible nature 
which sooner or later ultimates in death. 

Adam transgressed, and through his transgression death en- 
tered into the world. Because of this it was necessary that 
some means of atonement, or reconciliation, should be pro- 
vided, in order that death might be removed. There was in 
Eden a tree of life, concerning the powers of which very little 
is revealed, but Adam, after his transgression, was cut off 
from access to it, as it is written: 

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, 
to know good and evil ; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take 
also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: therefore the 
Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground 
from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed 
at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword 
which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life (Gen. 3: 
22-24). 

It is important to rightly understand what is comprehended 
in the sentence which was passed upon Adam. The exact 
terms of the sentence are: 

Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast 
eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not 



22 THE ATONEMENT 

eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou 
eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it 
bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the 
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the 
ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto 
dust shalt thou return (Gen. 3: 17-19). 

What is comprehended in this sentence is death — a destruc- 
tion of the human organization by a return to dust. The doc- 
trine of the Atonement has been seriously affected by the addi- 
tion to this sentence of something which it does not contain, 
a false theology having read into the passage ^^eternal tor- 
ment" instead of ^^death." Many have believed, and many 
still believe (though the doctrine is fast dying out), that 
when Adam sinned he was condemned, not only to death, but 
to an eternity of torture in a fiery hell, which is supposed to 
exist somewhere, though those who profess to believe in its 
existence are by no means clear as to its locality, and which 
is supposed to be presided over by a supernatural being, the 
devil, or Satan, of almost equal power with God, and who, 
judging from the supremacy of evil to the present, would 
seem to have far the greater power. Such a theory has been 
read into the Adamie sentence, but certainly is not compre- 
hended in the words that have been quoted from Genesis. 

What is comprehended in the sentence is death — a return 
of the bodily organism to its original dust. There is no inti- 
mation as to whether or not that death would be eternal in its 
effects 5 neither is there anything to exclude the possibility of 
a re-formation of the organism from the dust. Apart from 
such bodily reconstruction, the death would be eternal; but 
even at the time when the sentence was pronounced, an inti- 
mation was made that a deliverance from death should be 
found. It was contained in the words addressed to the ser- 
pent, the tempter of Eve: ^^I will put enmity between thee 
and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall 



THE OEIGIN OF DEATH 23 

bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Gen. 3 : 15). 
This is the germ of the revelation concerning the divine 
scheme of redemption, which is fully unfolded in the later 
portions of God's Word. This is the first prophecy concern- 
ing the Eedeemer, who should take away the world's sin, and 
undo the evil that Adam did. 



CHAPTER III. THE NATURE OF MAN 

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, 
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man 
became a living soul. — Gen. 2:7. 

In the last chapter it was shown that through Adam's 
disobedience sin entered into the world, and death by sin. It 
will be the object of the present to set forth what is revealed 
concerning the effect of that transgression upon the human 
race. 

Adam's destiny was fixed by reason of his sin. He was cut 
off from the possibility of partaking of the tree of life, and 
consigned to death after a life of toil. This consequence of 
his sin has been shared by his descendants. None have since 
had access to the tree of life, and most have been sons and 
daughters of toil. It is true there have been two of whom it is 
not recorded that they have died, but these exceptions are not 
a denial of the rule that death reigns through Adam. It is 
true that everyone of mature years is a sinner, that there 
liveth not one responsible being who is not guilty of trans- 
gression; but there are some who have done no sin and yet 
have died. No one will affirm that a babe of a few days or 
months is guilty of transgression, and 3^et that babe is liable 
to death, and a glance at the statistics of mortality will show 
that a very large proportion of the human race die before 
reaching an age of discretion and responsibility. Evidently 
they die because the whole human family inherits from Adam 
a corruptible nature. Any unbiased reader of the fifth chap- 
ter of Paul's letter to the Romans must admit that death 



THE NATURE OF MAN 25 

reigns because of Adam^s transgression, and not because of 
individual sin. 

The relation of the human race to Adam is very clearly 
stated in the letter to the Romans. After the words already 
quoted from the fifth chapter in reference to the Atonement, 
the apostle continues : 

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death 
by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 
(for until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed 
when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to 
Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of 
Adam's transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to come. 
But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the 
offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the 
gift by grace, which is by one Man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto 
many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the 
judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many 
offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense death reigned 
by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of 
the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ). 
Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men 
to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift 
came upon all men unto justification of life (Rom. 5: 12-18). 

It is manifest from this citation that the members of the 
human family by descent from Adam possess a corruptible 
nature in consequence of his transgression. They have no 
access to the tree of life, and stand related by nature to death 
alone. 

WHAT IS DEATH ? 

Many and widely differing are the opinions that are held 
concerning death and the present condition of the dead. One 
view is expressed in words used by the late Dr. Hiles Hitch- 
ens, of London: 

Life is salvation. Eternal death is a punishment added to exist- 
ence — death is condemnation and woe. Whether a man believes in 
Jesus or no he must exist for ever. 



26 THE ATONEMENT 

These words follow the quotation of several passages which 
are commonly thought to teach that the soul of man is im- 
mortal, that the life of the soul is unending existence, and 
that the life and death spoken of in the Scriptures as con- 
tingent on obedience or disobedience are happiness and woe. 
But, as we shall see in the course of our inquiry, the Scrip- 
tures do not speak thus concerning life and death. They use 
the terms in a sense in which we can understand them from 
daily experience, and not as synonymous with happiness and 
woe. 

By far the most common opinion is that man, in life, is a 
compound being, consisting of a material body which is 
mortal, and an immaterial soul which is immortal; and that 
death is the separation of these two parts, the body dying 
and returning to dust, and the soul leaving the body and en- 
tering upon a new phase of its existence, either in bliss or 
woe. This has been believed in almost all ages and climes, 
though it has been held with various modifications, as a few 
references to the writings of different periods will show. 

The ancient Egyptians believed in the soul's immortality, 
and in the transmigration of souls. Their ideas concerning 
the nature and destiny of man have been preserved in a re- 
markable manner for more than forty centuries. Those gigan- 
tic monuments which were erected by the Pharaohs not only 
tell the tale of Egypt's former greatness, but bear witness to 
her ancient faith. In the investigations that have recently 
been made by Eg3^ptologists, the tombs that have been sealed 
for many ages have been broken open and caused to yield 
their evidence toward unraveling the mysteries of the past. 
Eolls of papyrus, containing prayers for the dead, were placed 
with the body in the coffin, and some of those which have been 
taken from the tombs may now be seen in the British Museum, 
London, and other museums in various parts of the world. 
Some of the papyii contained extracts from a 'liturgy of the 



THE NATUBE OF MAN 27 

dead/' a sort of guide to the soul for its journey after death. 
This liturgy describes the judgment of the soul before forty- 
two assessors, each of whom tries it with reference to a par- 
ticular kind of sin. It depicts the bliss of those whose trial 
ends in their favor, and the misery of those who are found 
guilty. The latter are sent to animate the bodies of beasts 
on a second probation, and if again they are found unworthy 
of the portion of the blessed they are at last given over to 
eternal death. The object of embalming the body was to in- 
sure the safety of the soul, for it was thought that the soul 
could only be blessed while the body to which it belonged was 
in existence. Therefore the body was treated with elaborate 
processes to render it incorruptible; and so successful were 
the apothecaries in their work, that today the mummy forms 
of all classes of the people bear witness to the faith of those 
ages long gone by. 

A similar doctrine was held by the Greeks, and expressed in 
the teaching of Socrates, whose pupil, Plato, has embodied it 
in his writings. Socrates not only taught the immortality 
and transmigration of souls, but that they had a conscious 
existence prior to their possession by human bodies. Of the 
body and the soul he says : 

Our soul bears a strict resemblance to what is divine, immortal, 
intellectual, simple, indissolvable ; and is always the same and 
always alike; and our body does perfectly resemble what is human, 
mortal, sensible, compounded, dissolvable, always changing, and 
never like itself. 

Again he says : 

When a man comes to die, his mortal and corruptible part dies; 
but the immortal part goes off safe and triumphs over death. 

Concerning transmigration of souls he says : 

They go to animate the bodies of beasts of different species, 
according as they resemble their first courses. 



28 THE ATONEMENT 

After reasoning upon the ease with which things are learned 
while persons are still young, and declaring that this must 
argue not learning, but remembrance, he says : 

Our souls had a being before that time, that is to say, before they 
were invested with a human form, while they knew and understood. 

The above extracts are from the Phaeclo, an account of a 
discourse between Socrates and several of his friends on the 
morning of the day when he was to die by poison, in which 
discourse Socrates endeavored to prove the doctrine of the im- 
mortality of the soul, which belief made him perfectly re- 
signed. 

In the writings of some of the Eomans, too, references are 
made to the same doctrine. Thus, in De senectute, Cicero, in 
a dialogue between Cato and two friends on "old age," puts 
these words into the mouth of Cato : 

It is my conviction that your fathers, Publius Scipio, and you, 
Caius Laelius, men of the highest distinction and my dearest friends, 
are still alive, and that theirs is the life which alone deserves the 
name of life; for whilst we are immured in this prison-house of the 
body we are discharging some function and severe task imposed by 
destiny; for the heaven-born soul has been lowered down from its 
sublime tabernacle and, as it were, buried in the earth, a habitation 

uncongenial to its divine and imperishable nature It is a 

strong proof that men knew most things before they were born, 
that even when boys, when they are learning difficult arts, they 
grasp innumerable conceptions with such rapidity that they seem 
not to be learning them for the first time then, but to be remember- 
ing them and calling them to recollection. Such were the arguments 
of our friend Plato. 

In the same work Cicero quotes the following from Xeno- 
phon's account of the death of Cyrus the elder : 

You see that nothing so much resembles death as sleep, and it 
is while men sleep that their souls give the clearest manifestations 
of their divine origin, for when they are disengaged and free they 
have a foretaste of much of the future. And from this it may be 



THE NATURE OF MAN 29 

inferred in wliat condition they will be when they have completely 
emancipated themselves from the thralldom of the body. 

In modern prose writings and in many of the h3inns which 
are used in the services of most of the churches the same doc- 
trine finds abundant expression^ as the following citations will 
show : 

A charge to keep I have, 

A God to glorify, 
A never-dying soul to save 

And fit it for the sky. — Wesley. 

Happy sonl! thy days are ended, 

All thy mourning here below; 
Go, by angel guards attended. 

To the sight of Jesus go! 
Waiting to receive thy spirit, 

Lo! the Savior stands above; 
Shews the purchase of His merit, 

Eeaches out the crown of love. — Wesley. 

And let this feeble body fail. 

And let it faint and die; 
My soul shall quit this mournful vale 

And soar to worlds on high — 
Shall join the disembodied saints, 

x^nd find its long-sought rest, 
(That only rest for which it pants) 

On the Redeemer's breast. — Anon. 

In a little work by J. G. Pike, entitled Persuasives to Early 
Piety, the author ^ajs: 

One most weighty motive to induce you to give your youth to 
God is that you. possess an immortal soul. The body is the inferior 
part of your nature. Pass away a few short years and it must 
mingle with the clods of the valley. By the body you are allied to 
worms and dust; by the soul to angels and to God. Your soul is 
immortal. A few years will finish all your delights and hopes and 
fears below; then will your soul be fixed where it must live for ever. 



80 THE ATONEMENT 

The next two extracts are from The World to Come, by the 
celebrated Dr. Isaac Watts: 

So far as I can judge, the soul of man, in its own nature, is 
nothing but a conscious and active principle subsisting by itself, 
made after the image of God, who is all-conscious activity; and it 
is still the same being whether it be united to an animal body or 
separate from it. If the body die, the soul still exists an active 
and cpnscious power, or principle, or being 

At the hour of death we are sent at once into an invisible world; 
we shall find ourselves in the midst of holy or of unclean spirits; 
borne away at once into an unknown region, and into the midst of 
unknown inhabitants, the nations of the saved, or the crowds of 
damned souls. 

When considering the doom of sinners, the same writer thus 
expresses his opinion: 

The moment when the body falls asleep in death, the soul is 
more awake than ever to behold its own wretchedness. It has then 
such a piercing sense of its iniquities and the divine wrath that is 
due to them, as it never felt before. The inward senses of the 
soul which have been darkened and stupefied and benumbed, are all 
awake at once, when the veil of flesh is thrown off, and the curtains 
are drawn back which divided them from the world of spirits. 

Dr. Watts was the author of a great number of hymns, in 
many of which there are similar references to the immortal- 
ity of the soul and the glorious state which is supposed to 
commence at the moment of a righteous man's death. For 
example : 

I'll praise my Maker with my breath. 
And when my voice is lost in death 
Praise shall my nobler powers employ. 

Reference will be made later to the great contrast which these 
citations present to the writings of the inspired penmen; but 
one fact must be mentioned here. The last quotation is alto- 
gether opposed to the Scripture of which it is supposed to be 
a paraphrase, and contains an unwarranted addition. The 



THE NATURE OP MAN 81 

words of the Psalmist are : ^Traise ye the Lord. Praise the 
Lord, my soul. While I live will I praise the Lord : I will 
sing praises unto my God while I have any being" (Psalm 
146: 1, 3). And then, far from saying that at death, or 
after, his nobler powers shall continue the work of praise, he 
speaks of man in such a way as to indicate that the continu- 
ance would be impossible: "Put not your trust in princes, 
nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath 
goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his 
thoughts perish/' 

The quotations already made are all expressive of some 
form of natural immortality. In direct opposition is the doc- 
trine of the complete cessation of life and the succession of a 
state of total unconsciousness in death. This doctrine is re- 
ferred to by Socrates and Plato, and their reference proves 
its existence in their days. There are, however, two forms in 
which the doctrine exists. It is, of course, the belief of those 
who deny the divine in relation to man's life. They who 
deny the existence of an all-wise and all-powerful God who 
has formed man for the purpose of manifesting His glory 
through him, will naturally deny that there is for man a life 
beyond the grave. Those who believe that man has been de- 
veloped by unintelligent laws of evolution cannot be expected 
to believe that life eternal will be possessed by those who are 
so evolved. While they hold the doctrine of unconsciousness 
in death, without a ray of light breaking in upon its gloom, 
those who have faith in the Almighty, though believing that 
at death a state of unconsciousness ensues, also believe that 
life more glorious and eternal shall be attained through resur- 
rection. This latter is the view we shall proceed to establish, 
in harmony with the Scriptures of truth. 

Between these two extremes there are several views which, 
while not admitting man's natural immortality, maintain that 
immortality may be obtained through the observance of cer- 



32 THE ATONEMENT 

tain conditions, and, beginning in this life, must continue in 
some manner between death and resurrection. Thus it is held 
by some that a conscious intermediate state exists, during 
which both the righteous and the unrighteous are consciously 
existent in Hades, awaiting the reunion of soul and body to 
appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. By others it is 
maintained that this intermediate state is inactive — a condi- 
tion which may best be described as a kind of hibernation of 
the soul. 

With varying views as to man's nature, the opinions held 
concerning the death-state must necessarily differ. Hence, 
that the dead are in glory unspeakable, or in agony inconceiv- 
able, according to the tenor of the lives they spent on earth; 
that they exist in a general receptacle where good and bad 
alike await the judgment that is to determine their ultimate 
and eternal lot; that man is personally preserved in being, 
though in a state of unconsciousness; and that the death- 
state is either a temporary or an eternal cessation of being, 
conscious or unconscious. 

Before examining the Bible doctrine as to man's nature and 
his condition in death, let us briefly consider the arguments 
advanced in support of the opposite, but popular, view. 

The arguments used by Socrates in the passages quoted 
from Plato's Pkaedo and by Cicero are certainly not very 
good proof of the soul's immortality or prior existence. "It 
is a strong proof," says Cicero, "that men knew most things 
before they were born, that even when boys, when they are 
learning difficult arts, they grasp innumerable conceptions 
with such rapidity that they seem not to be learning them 
for the first time, but to be remembering them and calling 
them to recollection." This is not a very great argument, 
inasmuch as its contrary would prove the opposite. If readi- 
ness to learn arg-ues prior existence in the case of one person, 
the absence of that readiness in others, sometimes amounting 



THE NATUEE OF MAN 33 

to total inability, must necessarily prove that the souls of such 
did not pre-exist, and know most things. 

Nor is it a weighty argument for the glorious condition 
of the dead which is. quoted by Cicero from the account of 
the death of Cyrus, that from the activity of the mind during 
sleep it may be inferred in what condition the soul will be 
when completely emancipated from the thralldom of the body. 
If dreams are any indication of a future state they foretell 
a very incoherent mental condition. Few, indeed, are the 
dreams which are worthy of being described as foretastes of 
a felicitous condition of the blessed dead. 

One argument that has been used in support of the natural 
possession of immortality by man is that he aspires to it. It 
is suggested that God would not plant a yearning in the 
human mind which could not be satisfied, and that the yearn- 
ing for immortality must be satisfied by its possession. While 
it is possible that the yearning may be satisfied some time, it 
is not necessary that it shall be satisfied while the yearning 
lasts. A reasonable view of the matter would seem to show 
that the desire is proof of non-possession. What need is there 
to long for what one already has ? As Paul has said : "What 
a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for ?" (Rom. 8 : 24) . Yet 
Addison has said : 

It must be so! Plato, thou reasonest well! 
Else why this longing hope, this fond desire, 
This yearning after immortality? 

A very common argument for the soul's immortality is 
based upon the supremacy of man over the beasts. Man has 
a mind which lifts him far above the lower orders of creation, 
and it is said that this mind, the thinking part of principle, 
is the soul which lives after the body is dead. It is argued 
that matter cannot think, therefore the mind must be higher 
than matter, and so must be incapable of dissolution. One or 



34 THE ATONEMENT 

two facts will serve to show that this is no proof^ or, if proof, 
it proves too much. True it is that man's mind raises him 
above the rest of animate creation, but it cannot be denied 
that mind and reason exist to some degree in very low forms 
of life. There have been many cases recorded in which ani- 
mals have acted from reason, and not from mere instinct. 
The anecdotes of various animals, which in cases of emergency 
have been able to find ways out of difficulties, prove that the 
lower animals have power, in some degree, to grasp the cir- 
cumstances and reason upon them; they prove the existence 
of a mind to think, though not developed to the same extent 
as the human mind. The ant is noted for its ingenuity, and 
the horse and the dog have both given indications of a higher 
power than mere instinct. If mind in man argues eternity 
of existence, the presence of mind in the lower animals does 
as much for them; but the advocates of human immortality, 
however zealous, would not admit the latter part of the propo- 
sition. 

Mind is not matter. True ! but all that we know of mind 
is in connection with organized matter. Destroy the organi- 
zation and the power to think will cease. Even if the organi- 
zation is injured, the mental powers are suspended. A blow 
on the head is often sufficient to produce unconsciousness for 
a long period. A particle of bone pressing on the brain will 
prevent the proper action of the mind; a fever will cause 
great mental aberration; and the incoherent raving of one 
who is delirious proves that if the bodily organization is in- 
jured the mind is deranged. Is it, then, to be supposed that 
the mind, which cannot properly operate during temporary 
physical injury, shall be able not only to survive the total dis- 
solution of the body, but to act more perfectly? 

If the mind is the soul, the immortal part of man, how is it 
that some individuals are born into the world who never show 
any ability to think or reason? If every being who has ever 



THE NATUEE OF MAN 35 

lived has been^ by nature, a possessor of immortality_, it is 
strange that the mind should be the immortal ^avt, and yet 
some have no mind. It is strange, too, that some who are 
born with it should lose it and become demented. These are 
objections which take the ground from beneath the doctrine 
which declares that the soul is 

an independent thing, the real entity, and exists as such whether 
the mechanism through "uhich and upon which it acts be disarranged 
or not; and even the destruction of the latter does not affect the 
former. It is this spiritual organism which sees and hears and 
feels, which suffers and enjoys, which thinks and wills and executes. 

THE TEACHIXG OF THE SCEIPTDRES COXCEENIXG THE NATURE 

OF MAN 

The Bible evidence as to the nature of man is of two kinds 
— positive, or what is taught by being revealed; and nega- 
tive, or what is to be inferred from omission. We will examine 
the negative evidence first. 

The books which Moses wrote cover a period of more than- 
t^^'o thousand five hundred years. No intimation is to be 
found in them of man's natural immortality. This is ex- 
ceedingly strange if it be true that man's better part is im- 
mortal — strange that during all that time no revelation should 
be made of that which, if true, would be of the highest im- 
portance to mankind; and strange that such an one as Moses 
should not have mentioned it in any way. Moses had been 
brought np at Pharaoh's court. It is very probable that he 
was educated at the ancient University of Heliopolis. By 
Stephen's testimony we know that he was "learned in all the 
wisdom of the Egyptians." He must have understood per- 
fectly their doctrine of the sonl's immortality, for it w^as faith 
in that which caused them to take such care of the body 
after death. Kerodotus says that "the Egj^ptians were the 
iirst who asserted the doctrine that the soul of man is immor- 



36 THE ATONEMENT 

tal." The papyri taken from the Egyptian tombs, and now 
preserved in various museums, bear witness to the antiquity 
of the belief. And 3^et this Moses, when giving God's law to 
Israel, never uttered a sentence which could lend countenance 
to the doctrine that man is immortal. His testimony to the 
contrary will be cited shortly. 

It is recorded in the writings of Moses that the serpent, 
when tempting Eve, said to her: "Ye shall not surely die." 
This, however, was uttered by the serpent, not by Moses. It 
is known to be the first lie, and is referred to as such by Jesus 
and the apostles. Yet, if it is true that man is naturally im- 
mortal and cannot die, the serpent spoke the truth, and is 
cleared from the imputation that he has been under for so 
long. But the serpent did lie, and his lie is another evidence 
of the truth of the contrary, that man is mortal and shall die. 

All the Old Testament prophets agree with Moses in being 
silent as to man's natural immortality. During four thousand 
years no voice is heard which, with divine authority, proclaims 
this doctrine — a doctrine which, if true, ought to have been 
declared in trumpet tones. 

The great Teacher, Jesus of ISTazareth, like Moses and the 
prophets, is also silent, and so are the apostles, as to man's 
natural immortality, though with no uncertain sound they 
proclaim the contrary. 

The negative evidence concerning the death-state is very 
powerful. There have been some who have died and lived 
again. They alone should be able to tell from personal ex- 
perience what succeeds death. How have they acted? They 
have all remained silent. Not one word of information is 
vouchsafed by them. Though the thought to which Tenny- 
son has given expression in his "In Memoriam,'' 

Where wert thou, brother, those four clays'? 

may have passed through the minds of Martlia and Mary, and 



THE NATURE OF MAN 37 

probably was given utterance when Jesus restored to them 
their brother Lazarus, yet no revelation is given by Lazarus 
which the gospel writer has recorded, wherein anything fur- 
ther is made known than they already knew concerning the 
condition of the dead. If a revelation had been given, it 
would have been supremely important that it should be pre- 
served. Its absence is strong presumptive evidence that there 
was none. As Tennyson has further said : 

Behold a man raised up by Christ! 

The rest remaineth imrevealed ; 
He told it not; or something sealed 

The lips of that evangelist. 

Others besides Lazarus have been raised from the dead, but 
the}^, too, are silent as to the death-state. The son of the 
widow at Zarepath, whom Elijah raised; the son of the 
Shunamite, whom Elisha raised; the man who was raised 
when the body of Elisha touched his ; the young man at Nain, 
whom Jesus raised; the daughter of Jairus, also raised by 
Jesus; Eutychus, whom Paul raised; and Dorcas, whom Peter 
raised — all are silent concerning man's condition in death. 
This is strong negative evidence in favor of the view that the 
death-state is one of unconsciousness; having no knowledge, 
those vrho were raised could have nothing to reveal. The 
testimony of Jesus in Eev. 1 : 18, is that He liveth, though 
once He was dead, and that He is now alive for evermore, and 
has the keys of the grave and of death; but He gives no in- 
formation as to the condition of the dead, as to their con- 
sciousness or unconsciousness. 

There lives no record of reply 
Which tells us what it is to die. 

To this negative evidence there is much positive evidence 
to be added. Moses has something to say of man's nature 
when recording his creation. 



38 THE ATONEMENT 

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a 
living soul (Gen. 2: 7). 

It has been previously remarked that all that is taught by this 
passage is that man, being formed of the dust, perfect in 
organization, needed the breath of life in order to the per- 
formance of his destined functions; and, having received the 
breath of life, he became a living soul. The plain inference 
is that if that breath of life is withdrawn the man remains 
but dust. There is nothing said about breathing a real, im- 
mortal man into the house of dust prepared for him to dwell 
in for a short time. The man, not his dwelling, is formed of 
dust ; and when the breath, which is neither possessed of con- 
sciousness nor eternal life, is withdrawn, the man, not his 
house or casket, but the man himself, remains but dust. 

This is affirmed of all the animate creation. They are 
formed of dust and animated by the breath of life. If that 
breath is withdrawn they die. Thus the Psalmist says of 
animate beings : 

Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their 
breath, they die, and return to their dust (Psalm 104: 29). 

This is in perfect accord with the words of Solomon in 
Ecclesiastes : 

For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even 
one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, 
they have all one breath; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above 
a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the 
dust, and all turn to dust again (Eccles. 3: 19, 20). 

The Scriptures do not make any such distinction as modern 
theologians do between the man and his body. They do not 
say "thy body is dust, and unto dust shall thy body return, 
whilst thou, the real man, shalt live forever in bliss or in 
woe." They speak to the man without such distinction, and 



THE NATUEE OF MAN 39 

affirm tliat lie^ not liis body oul}^^ is dust, and that to dust lie 
shall return. As was said to Adam when he sinned : 

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return 
unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, 
and unto dust shalt thou return (Gen. 3: 19). 

The name given to the man, Adam, is an indication of his 
nature. It signifies red earth. "Male and female created He 
them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the 
da}^ when they were created'^ (Gen. 5: 2). When Adam was 
driven from the garden of Eden lest he should partake of the 
tree of life, it is said that "the Lord God sent him forth from 
the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was 
taken"^ (Gen. 3: 23). When pleading with God for the de- 
liverance of Sodom, Abraham said : "I have taken upon me 
to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes'' (Gen. 
18: 27). Elihu said to Job: "/ also am formed out of the 
day" (Job. 33: 6). The Psalmist says concerning the Lord: 
"He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that lue are dust" 
(Psalm 103 : 14) . Paul adds his testimony to the same truth : 
"The first man is of the earth, earthy; .... as is the earthy, 
such are they also that are earthy" (I Cor. 15 : 47, 48). 

The above are plain, literal statements as to man's nature. 
There are many passages which speak figuratively to the same 
effect. Many times man is likened to grass, as in the follow- 
ing: 

As for man, his clays are as grass j as a flower of the field, so he 
flourisheth: for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the 
place thereof shall know it no more (Psalm 103 : 15, 16). 

The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is 
grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; 
the grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the spirit of the 
Lord bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass (Isa. 40 : 6, 7). 

As the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no 
sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and 
the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it per- 



40 THE ATONEMENT 

isheth: So also shall the rich man fade away in his ways (James 1: 
10, 11). 

Isaiah again says : 

Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted 
as the small dust of the balance: behold, He taketh up the isles as a 

very little thing All nations before Him are as nothing; and 

they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity (Isa. 40: 
15, 17). 

Life is spoken of as a vapor, another indication of its evanes- 
cent character, and a disproof of its eternal continuity : 

What is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little 
time, and then vanisheth away (James 4: 14). 

How different is the estimate which the Scriptures put 
upon man from that which is attributed to him by those who 
believe in the immortality of the soul, which is supposed to 
be a spark from the divine nature and to be incapable of ex- 
tinction ! It is true that there are great possibilities before 
each individual, but of man in his present estate, whether 
considered individually or racially, the Scriptures do not give 
a very flattering estimate, as the above quotations show. 

THE BIBLE USE OF THE WORD ''sOUL'' 

Although the Bible speaks very plainly about the nature 
of man, it nevertheless has much to say about the soul. A 
passage has already been several times referred to in which 
it is said that, by the addition of the breath of life to the dust- 
formed body, the man became a living soul. Nowhere in the 
Scriptures can a sentence be found which contains the ex- 
pression ^^immortal soul" or its equivalents, "deathless soul" 
and "never-dying soul," although these terms are of very 
common occurrence in general religious literature. The Bible 
has nothing whatever to say in favor of man's natural im- 
mortality. 



THE NATURE OF MAN 4i 

The word immortal occurs only once in the Authorized 
Version, and it is then applied to God. In the Revised Ver- 
sion the word "incorruptible" is substituted: 

Now unto the King eternal, immortal (R. V, incorruptible), invis- 
ible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever 
(II Tim. 1: 17). 

Tlie word immortality occurs only five times in the Author- 
ized Version, and in two of these passages "incorruption" is 
substituted in the Eevised Version. After the apostle Paul, 
in the loth chapter of the 1st letter to the Corinthians, has 
dealt at length with the reality of the resurrection of Jesus, 
and shown how the resurrection of others is dependent upon 
it, he continues : 

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal 
must 'put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put 
on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then 
shall be brought to pass the saying that is written. Death is swal- 
lowed up in victory (I Cor. 15: 53, 54). 

One passage states that God alone possesses immortality : 

The King of kings and Lord of lords; who only Jiath immortality, 
dwelling in light unapproachable (I Tim. 6: 15, 16). 

The other two speak of immortality as a thing to be sought 
for — hence we may infer that it is not already possessed by 
those who are to seek for it — and as being brought to light by 
Christ, because He revealed the path whereby it may be at- 
tained : 

God, who will render to every man according to his deeds; to them 
who by patient continuance in well-doing seeTc for glory and honor 
and immortality, eternal life (Rom. 2: 5-7) ; 

Our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath 
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (II Tim. 
1: 10). 

The angels are now immortal, though it cannot be known 



42 THE ATONEMENT 

with certainty whether they were so created^ or whether they 
have been made immortal as the result of probation. What- 
ever may have been their former state, they are now pos- 
sessed of immortality, and the Lord Jesus has said that those 
who walk worthily in this time of probation shall be made 
equal to them — another proof that immortality is not a pres- 
ent possession, but something to be attained through resurrec- 
tion: 

But they whicli shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, 
and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in 
marriage: neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto 
the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the 
resurrection (Luke 20: 35, 36). 

Instead of it being revealed that man now possesses a spark 
of the divine nature which never can decay, it is a matter of 
promise that those who are accounted worthy shall become 
partakers of the divine nature. Peter has said : 

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: 
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having 
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (II Peter 
1: 4). 

The words rendered "soul" in the Authorized Version of 
the Bible are nepliesli, neshamah, and nedihali in the Old 
Testament, and psucJie in the New. 

Neshamah and nedihah are only translated "soul" once 
each. In neither case is any reference made to an immortal 
part of man which is able to consciously exist after death. 
"For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always 
wroth: for the spirit should fail before Me, and the soids 
which I have made" (Isa. 57: 16). Here neshamah is used, 
but, far from teaching that the souls are immortal, it implies 
that they. are mortal, for they can fail or faint away. Twelve 
times neshamah is translated "breath" as at Isa. 2 : 22 : 
"Cease ye from man, whose hreath is in his nostrils." 



THE NATURE OF MAN 



43 



Nesliamah lends no support to the doctrine of the immortality 
of the soul. Nor does nedihah. When Job was justifying 
himself before his false accusers he said : "Terrors are turned 
upon me: they pursue my soul {nedihah) as the wind; and 
my welfare passeth away as a cloud" (Job 30: 15). The 
marginal rendering is "my principal one;" while the Revised 
Aversion gives "mine honor" and the Eevised Version margin 
"my nobility." Since the meaning conveyed by nedihah is 
honor or nobility, it can scarcely be adduced as a proof of the 
immortality of the soul. 



NEPHESH 

In all other cases in the Old Testament "soul" is a trans- 
lation of nephesh, concerning which Parkhurst in his Greek 
lexicon has said : 

As a noun, nepJiesh hath been supposed to signify the spiritual 
part of man, or what we commonly call his soul; I must, for myself, 
confess that I can finck no passage where it hath undoubtedly this 
meaning : 

Nephesh occurs 752 times, and is variously translated. Sub- 
joined is a list of the various renderings in the Authorized 
Version, together with the number of occurrences of each, 
arranged to show the relative number of instances in which 
each of the forty-four renderings is found : 



Soul 475 

Life, lives.. 120 

Person 30 

Heart 15 

Mind 15 



Creature . . 
Himself .. . 

Body 

Yourselves . . 
The dead . . 



Desire 5 



Man 

Him 

Me 

Themselves . 

Any 

Will 

Pleasure . 

He 

Herself . . 

Thee 

Lust 



4 Ghost 2 His own . . 



Thing .. 
Appetite 
Beast . . 
Men . . . 
Her ... 
Myself 

We 

Thyself 
They ... 
One .... 



She wiU . . . 
Mortally . . 
Tablets .... 
Fellows . . . 
Greedy .... 
Discontented 
Breath .... 
Hearty .... 

Fish 

Deadly .... 



44 THE ATONEMENT 

It will be seen from this list that the renderings do not lend 
much support to- the doctrine of natural immortality ; many 
of them, indeed, are indicative of the reverse, clearly indi- 
cating man's mortality. 

The first occurrence of nepliesh is at Gen. 1 : 20 : "And 
God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving 
creature that hath life/' In the margin soul is given as an 
alternative rendering. The second occurrence is in the next 
verse (31) : "And God created great whales, and every living 
creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abund- 
antly.'^ The third occurrence is at vs. 24 of the same chap- 
ter: "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living 
creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast 
of the earth after his kind." And the fourth occurrence is at 
vs. 30: "And to every beast of the earth, and to every 
fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the 
earth, wherein there is life (Margin, a living soul), I have 
given every green herb for meat." 

Here are the first four occurrences of nephesh, all in the 
Jst chapter of Genesis, and all referring to orders of creation 
lower than the human. The fifth occurrence of the word is 
in Gen. 2 : 7, where for the first time it is applied to man : 
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, 
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man be- 
came a living soul." Why should a difference be made here, 
and the application of nephesh to man be taken to denote his 
possession of immortality, and as much be denied to the rest 
of the animate creation? If nephesh in the one case implies 
immortality, it does also in the other. Man and the lower 
animals are formed of dust, and animated by the breath of 
life, and all living (though not ever-living or immortal) souls. 
This is evidently the indication of the passages quoted, when 
free from any theological gloss which would falsify their ap- 
pearance. Man and beast have all one breath, given to them 



THE NATUEE OF MAN 45 

by God, and if He withdraws that breath all alike return to 
dust. 

Let it not be thought that this is a contention for man's 
complete equalit}^ with the lower forms of life. By no means. 
Physically he is one with them, but mentally and morally he 
is far above them, and has therefore a relation to his Creator 
which they have not; and he has by virtue of that relation a 
prospect of immortality which is nowhere promised concern- 
ing them. This relation and this prospect will need to be 
considered again later, but this brief reference will serve to 
prevent any misunderstanding as to the contention here main- 
tained. 

The evident application of nepliesli is to the ivliole animaU 
being J which lives by the breath of life, as shown by the previ- 
ous quotations and by the following, in which the word 
"souF^ is used: 

And Abram took Sarai Ms wife, and Lot Ms brother's son, and 
all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they 
had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of 
Canaan (Gen. 12: 5). 

Whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the sev- 
enth day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel (Exod. 12: 15). 

And every soul that eateth that which dieth of itself . ... he 
shall both wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be 
unclean until the even (Levi. 17: 15). 

Levy a tribute unto the Lord of the men of war which went out to 
battle; one soul of five hundred, both of the persons, and of the 
beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep (Num.- 31: 28). 

And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the 
sword, utterly destroying them (Josh. 11: 11). 

For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which 
without cause they have digged for my soul (Psalm 35: 7). 

For lo, they lie in wait for my soul; the mighty are gathered 
against me (Psalm 59: 3). 

And He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul 
(Psalm 106: 15). 

In all these passages the meaning is quite clear if it is un- 



46 THE ATONEMENT 

derstood that the soul {nephesh) refers to the entire person- 
ality; but if the idea of an immortal, invisible, and immate- 
rial soul is introduced, there is confusion. How could such be 
'^cut off" (which means "put to death'') for eating leavened 
bread during the days of unleavened bread ? How could such 
be "slain" by Joshua and "utterly destroyed" when he went 
forth to the conquest of Hazor? How could such be affected 
by the pit which the enemies of the Psalmist dug, or by the 
leanness which followed the murmuring of the Israelites? 
They could not. 

The following are cases where the same meaning is con- 
veyed by different translations : 

And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, 
and take the goods to thyself (Gen. 14: 21). 

Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by 
the mouth of witnesses (Num. 35: 30). 

And David said to Abiathar .... I have occasioned the death of 
all the persons of thy father's house (I Sam. 22: 22). 

Neither doth God respect any person (II Sam. 14: 14). 

And God said, This is the token of the covenant vyhich I make 
between Me and you and every living creature that is with you 
(Gen. 9: 12). 

Whosoever toucheth the dead Tjody of any man that is dead, and 
purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the Lord (Num. 
19: 13). 

And they took .... of men an hundred thousand (I Chron. 
5: 21). 

If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children 
of Israel (Deut. 24: 7). 

Although the primary use of nepliesh is to denote the whole 
being, it is also used to express qualities or characteristics of 
the person; but never does it convey the slightest intimation 
of natural or inherent immortality. The next most common 
rendering to "soul" is "life." "Life" and "lives" occur 120 
times as renderings of nepliesli, and in the majority of these 
cases the substitution of the words "immortal soul" would re- 



THE NATUEE OF MAN 47 

duce the meaning to an absurdity ; in none would it improve 
the sense. Life is not necessarily eternal. In many instances 
where nephesli is so translated the meaning is evidently "mor- 
tal'^ life: 

Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all 
the plain (Gen. 19: 17). 

Thy life shall hang in doubt before thee (Dent. 28: 66). 

remember that my life is wind (Job 7: 7). 

For by Me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life 
shall be increased (Prov. 9: 11). 

1 have cut off like a weaver my life (Isa. 38: 12). 

Nephesh is rendered "heart" 15 times, and "mind" 15 times: 

He that is of a proud lieart stirreth up strife (Prov. 28: 25). 

And they shall weep for thee with a bitterness of heart and bitter 
wailing (Ezek. 27: 31). 

If it be in your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, 
hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, that he may 
give me the cave of Machpelah (Gen. 23: 8, 9). 

They be mighty men and they be chafed in their minds (II Sam. 
17: 18). 

In the following passages the rendering is akin to "heart" or 
mind: 

They tempted God in their heart, by asking meat for their lust 
(Psalm 78: 18). ' 

The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive; and he shall be 
blest upon the earth; and Thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of 
his enemies (Psalm 41: 2). 

Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire 
(Eccles. 6: 9). 

To bind his princes at his pleasure, and teach his senators wisdom 
(Psalm 105: 22). 

All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not 
filled (Eccles. 6:7). 

Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart; so doth the sweetness 
of a man's friend by hearty counsel (Prov. 27: 9). 

And everyone that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt. 



48 THE ATONEMENT 

and everyone that w.is discontented, gathered themselves unto him 
(I Sam. 22: 2). 

Yea, they are greedy dogs, which can never have enough (Isa. 
56: 11). 

The following renderings of nepliesh will at once be seen to 
be antagonistic to the doctrine of natural immortalit}^ : 

But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise 
up against him, and smite him mortally that he die (Deut. 19: 11). 

Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead (Lev. 
19: 28). 

There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people (Lev. 
21: 1). 

Many more citations might be made which bear similar 
testimony, but it will be evident from the above that the Bible 
use of the word nepJiesh is, primarily, to denote the whole 
organisra, whether of animals or of man ; and, secondarily, the 
characteristics of that organism, the chief of which are life 
and 7nind.. In no case is any evidence afforded of the natural 
possession of immortality by every human being that has been 
born. As will be seen later, immortality is a grand and glori- 
ous prospect, which can only be realized by the fulfilment of 
divinely ordained conditions. 

PSUCHE 

Psuche is the Few Testament equivalent for nephesh, and 
it is used in a similar manner. It denotes, primarily, the 
whole organism, and, secondarily, the attributes of that organ- 
ism. Psuche occurs 105 times, and is rendered as follows: 

Soul 58 Mind 3 Heart 1 Heartily . . 1 

Life, lives.. 40 You 1 Us 1 

The following are instances of the primary use of psuclie: 

And fear came upon every soul (Acts 2: 43). 
And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen 
souls (Acts 27: 37). 

The first man Adam was made a living soul (I Cor. 15: 45). 



THE NATURE OF MAN 49 

Let him know, that he which eonverteth a sinner from the error 
of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of 
sins (James 5: 20). 

While the ark was a-preparing, wherein few, that is eight, souls 
were saved by water (I Peter 3: 20). 

Instances of the secondar}' use of psuche are found in the fol- 
lowing passages: 

They are dead which sought the young child's life (Matt. 2: 20). 

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will 
lose his life for My sake shall find it (Matt. 16: 25). 

Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus 
Christ (Acts 15: 26). 

That ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together 
for the faith of the gospel (Philip. 1: 27). 

Lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds (Heb. 12: 3). 

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto 
men (Col. 3: 23). 

Not with eyeservice as men-pleasers ; but as the servants of Christ, 
doing the will of God from the heart (Ephes. 6: 6). 

Instead of speaking of the soul as immortal and capable of 
conscious existence after the death of the bod}^, the New Testa- 
ment teaches that the soul is in danger of being killed. The 
passage which is sometimes advanced to prove the soul's im- 
mortality, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not 
able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to de- 
stroy both soul and body in hell (Gehenna)" (Matt. 10: 28), 
proves the very opposite. It is here implied that, though men 
may put to death their fellows, God is able to restore the soul 
or life ; but He is able to destroy the life beyond any hope of 
restoration. If it can be destro3^ed it is not immortal. Neither 
the Hebrew nor the Greek words translated "soul" give any 
evidence in favor of man's immortal nature. 

BIBLE USE OF THE WORD ''sPIRIT'' 

It is sometimes said that although the soul may not be im- 
mortal the spirit is. If, however, the Bible use of the word 



50 



THE ATONEMENT 



"spirit'^ be examined, it will be found that, as in the case of 
"soul/' there is no evidence in favor of the doctrine of an im- 
mortal, conscious survival after the body is dead, but that 
there is evidence as to man's mortalit}^ 

RUACH 

In the Old Testament the words translated "spirit" are 
ruacli and nesliamali. The latter occurs twice. "To whom 
hast thou uttered words ? and whose spirit came from thee ?" 
(Job. 26 : 4). "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord" 
(Prov. 20: 27). In all other cases "spirit" is a translation 
of ruach, which occurs 400 times and is rendered as follows : 



Spirit 240 Blast 4 In the cool. 1 Windy .. 

Wind 95 Smelled .... 1 Tempest ... 1 Whirlwind 

Breath .... 28 Quarters . . 1 Understand- Smelleth 

Mind 6 Anger 1 ing 1 Accept . . 

Side 6 Courage ... 1 Spiritual ... 1 Toucheth 

Smell 5 Vain 1 Air 1 Smellest . 



It is nowhere affirmed by Moses in his writings that the 
spirit is a conscious part of a man which, after the body has 
died, continues to live and enjoy happiness or endure torment. 
Among the early occurrences of ruacli are the following : 

And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in 
the cool of the day (Gen. 3: 8). 

Behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to 
destroy all flesh, wherein is the hreath of life (Gen. 6: 17). 

And God made a wind to pass over the earth (Gen. 8: 1). 

The evident meaning here is "air" or "breath." which sustains 
the animate creation. This is the primary meaning of ruacli. 
Other instances of its use are to be found in the later books : 

I would hasten my escape from the ivindij storm and tempest 
(Psalm 55: 8). 
The north wind driveth away rain (Prov. 25: 23). 
His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal. 



THE NATURE OF MAN 51 

One is so near to another, tliat no air can come between them (Job 
41: 15, 16). 

Behold I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor, 
and shall return to his own land (II Kings 19: 7). 

A shadow from the heat, when the hlast of the terrible ones is as 
a storm against the wall (Isaiah 25: 4). 

And I looked, and, behold, a ivhirhcind came out of the north 
(Ezek. 1:4). 

Thou takest away their dreath, they die, and return to their dust 
(Psalm 104:29). 

Ruach has several other uses in Scripture. It sometimes de- 
notes a "power" or "influence," and sometimes a condition of 
mind ; but in neither case does it lend any support to the doc- 
trine of natural immortality : 

And it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they 
prophesied (Numb. 11: 25). 

For the Lord hath poured upon you the spirit of deep sleep 
(Isa. 29: 10). 

Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall 
(Prov. 16: 18). 

Then their anger was abated towards him, when he had said that 
(Judg. 8:3). 

These passages do not teach the conscious existence of an im- 
mortal spirit after the death of the body. Other references 
are made to spirit which directly oppose such teaching : 

And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, 
the spirit of Jacob their father revived (Gen. 45: 27). 

"Eevived" means "lived again." If the reference here is to 
an immortal spirit within him, it is a strange statement to 
make about it. If^, however, it refers to Jacob's spirit or mind 
all is clear. 

An Egyptian w^as brought to David; because he was faint 
and w^ear}^, food and water were given to him. "And when he 
had eaten, his spirit came again to him" (I Sam. 30 : 12). It 
is singular that a spirit which cannot exist a few days without 



52 THE ATONEMENT 

food and water should be able to exist far better when death 
has taken place. But no such spirit is here intended. It is a 
similar case to Jacob's; courage, strength, and vigor revived. 
Neither nephesh nor riiach gives the slightest support to the 
doctrine of the conscious, immortal existence of the soul or 
spirit after death. Dr. McCullough has said: 

There is no word in the Hebrew language that signifies either soul 
or spirit in the technical sense in which we use the term as signifying 
something distinct from the body. 

PNEUMA 

In the New Testament "spirit'^ is the translation of pneuma 
and pJiantasma. The latter word only occurs twice : "And 
when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were 
troubled, saying. It is a spirit'' (Matt. 14: 26) ; "But when 
they saw Him Avalking upon the sea, they supposed it had been 
a spirit and cried out" (Mark 6 : 49). The meaning here is a 
"phantom,^' or an "apparition." 

Pneuma occurs 385 times and is thus rendered : 

Spirit 289 Life 1 Spiritunllj 1 

Ghost (preceded Spiritual 1 Wind 1 

by Holy) 90 

Ghost (not pre- 
ceded by Holy) 2 

Pneuma is used to denote a heing, an influence, a state of 
mind, and the air. The following instances illustrate its use 
to denote a being : 

God is a Spirit (John 4: 24). 

Are they not all ministering spirits? (Heb. 1: 14). 

The following examples illustrate its use to denote an in- 
fluence : 

Behold My Servant, whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My 
soul is well pleased: I will put My spirit upon Him, and He shall 



THE NATURE OF MAN 53 

show judgment to the Gentiles (Matt. 12: 18, quoted from Isa. 42: 1, 
and proving that riiacli and pneuma refer to the same thing or 
things). 

But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law (Gal. 
5: 18). 

The following are instances where it indicates a state of mind: 

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their 's is the kingdom of 
heaven (Matt. 5: 3). 

I had no rest in my spirit because I found not Titus my brother 
(II Cor. 2: 13). 

Whose adorning .... let it be the hidden man of the heart in 
that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet 
spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price (I Peter 3: 3, 4). 

In the following instances it indicates the ah' or breath of 
life, which is mentioned in Gen. 2 : 7 as forming with the 
dust-formed body the living soul : 

For as the body without the spirit (Margin, hreath) is dead, so 
faith without works is dead also (James 2: 26). 

He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost (John 19: 30). 

The last passage is rendered by Wakefield and others, "He 
expired/^ that is, He gave up the breath. 

Unclean spirits are spoken of in many places, and it is 
thought that they are personalities of an opposite character 
to the angels of good, the ministering spirits of Heb. 1 : 14. 
This subject will be considered in detail in a later chapter; 
but it is necessary to state here that even if such were true it 
would not prove the immortality of man's spirit, since these 
are supposed to be wicked spirits which take possession of man 
for a time, being able to depart and return at will. What is 
said of them must not be applied to man. 

BIBLE TEACHING CONCERNING THE STATE OF THE DEAD 

If popular teaching concerning the nature of man is out of 
harmony with the teaching of the Bible, it is not likely that 



54 THE ATONEMENT 

there will be harmony between the two respecting the present 
state of the dead. If the soul is immortal, if the spirit is im- 
mortal, if either or both continue to live when the bod}^ has 
died, there must needs be somewhere for them to dwell. Hence 
the necessity for modern theology having its heaven for the 
just to go to immediately at death, to delight in the fulness of 
joy in God's presence; of hell for the wicked to be eternally 
tormented in as a punishment for their sins ; or of Hades, an 
intermediate Avaiting-place where both just and unjust dwell 
after death until all appear before the judgment-seat to re- 
ceive their eternal reward or punishment. If, on the other 
hand, death is really death, and not a continuance of life, the 
necessity for these places, as they are generally understood, is 
done away. The dead are dead, and not alive. This must 
necessarily be the teaching of the Scriptures, seeing that they 
declare that man is by nature mortal, and that no part con- 
sciously survives the death of the body. 

The Bible teaches that the dead are in the grave, and that 
they are entirely unconscious. The following passages will 
serve to show that such is the case : 

Hear my prayer, Lord, and give ear unto my eryj hold not Thy 
peace at my tears; for I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, 
as all my fathers were. O spare me, that I may recover strength, 
before I go hence, and be no more (Psalm 39: 12, 13). 

In death there is no remembrance of Thee: in the grave who shall 
give Thee thanks? (Psalm 6:5). 

What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit? 
Shall the dust praise Thee? shall it declare Thy truth? (Psalm 30: 9). 

The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence 
(Psalm 105: 17). 

Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom 
there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; 
in that very day Ms tJiouglits perish (Psalm 146: 3, 4). 

For the living know that they shall die; but the dead Imoiv not 
anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of 
them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, 



THE NATUEE OF MAN 55 

is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in 
anything that is done under the sun (Eceles. 9: 5, 6). 

There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the 
grave, whither thou goest (Eecles. 9: 10). 

For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have 
slept ; then had I been at rest with kings and counsellors of the earth, 
which built desolate places for themselves .... There the wicked 
cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest (Job 3: 13, 
14, 17). 

For the grave cannot praise Thee, death cannot celebrate Thee; 
they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth. The 
living, the living, he shall praise Thee, as I do this day (Isa. 38: 
18, 19). 

Man}^ other testimonies might be adduced^ but these will 
serve to show the Bible teaching concerning the condition of 
the dead. They are plain statements which in no way can 
possibly be reconciled with belief in the immortality of the 
soul. 

Contrast the above with Dr.Watts's hymn in which he de- 
clares that when his voice is lost in death praise shall employ 
his nobler powers. If to die is to be "better off/^ if death is 
"the portal of a life elysian/' if "this mortality is but the 
shadow of death, not its reality, the birth-pangs of a larger 
and fuller life/^ then one would think that Hezekiah ought 
to have been glad to know that soon he would be in the enjoy- 
ment of the highest bliss, the fulness of joy and pleasure in 
God's presence forevermore. But Hezekiah knew the awful 
nature of death; he knew it to be a stern reality, not merely 
a shadow; he understood it in all its naked horror; and he 
prayed to be delivered therefrom a little longer. And today, 
even those who profess to believe that the day of their death 
is, as Cicero said, the happiest day in their experience, try to 
postpone it as long as possible. A medical man is called in as 
soon as any signs are apparent that death is stalking near, and 
he is requested to do battle with the grim foe. Death is an 



56 THE ATONEMENT 

event which none but the insane can welcome. The separation 
from those who are loved and dear, the bitter pains which 
usually attend, the prospect of the cold, dark tomb, and the 
thought of approaching dissolution, are justly cause for 
shrinking from the terrible ordeal. Nature can shed no ray 
of light upon this darkness. She can hold out no prospect 
radiant with joyous hope. But in God's grace a glorious reve- 
lation has been made which from every faithful heart can dis- 
pel the gloom, and light the other end of death's dark vale 
with everlasting light. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead 
and become the First-fruits of them that slept. In His resur- 
rection a pledge is given that those who trust in God through 
Him shall also be raised. This, and this alone, can fill the 
heart of every saint with joy and peace, and take away the 
bitterness of death. 



CHAPTEE IV. A CONSIDERATION OF SOME PAS- 
SAGES THOUGHT TO TEACH NATURAL 
IMMORTALITY 

And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing (for she died), 
that she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benja- 
min. And Eachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which 
is Bethlehem (Gen. 35: 18, 19). 

Here it is thought is certain proof of the soul's departure 
from the body at death. Such is indeed the case ; it is plainly 
stated in the early part of the quotation. But it is also thought 
that the departing of the soul is to the enjoyment of everlast- 
ing glory; this, however, is not stated in the passage. In- 
stances have already been given of the use of "soul" for "life.^* 
Is not the present one where "life'^ is intended? Read it so 
and see. It is perfectly intelligible : "And it came to pass as 
her life was in departing (for she died)." The phrase in 
parenthesis is proof that life is intended here — she died. If 
the general opinion concerning it were true, she did not die. 
What seemed to be death would then be but transition. J. J, 
Ashley in The World and the Life Beyond^ has said : 

Death is another life; we bow our heads 
On going out, we think, and enter straight 
Another golden chamber of the King's, 
Larger than this and lovelier. 

The quotation from Genesis does not agree with the sentiment 
expressed in these lines. Nothing is said about Rachael de- 
parting to glory. "'She died, and was buried in the way to 



58 THE ATONEMENT 

Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon 
her grave/^ 

And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried 
unto the Lord and said, Lord my God, I pray Thee, let this child's 
soul come into him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; 
and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived 
(I Kings 17: 21, 22). 

In examining these passages it must be remembered that 
as the Scriptures do not contradict themselves they cannot 
teach anything opposite to their general tenor. Consequently, 
since the general teaching has been expressed in the previous 
chapter, these passages must be in harmony therewith. The 
substitution of life for soul in this case shows it to be in har- 
mony with the rest of Scripture. The union of the breath of 
life with the dust-formed body produced a living soul, or 
living creature. In vs. 17 it says: "And it came to pass 
after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of 
the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore that there 
was no hreath left in him." This is how his death is spoken 
of — the departure of Ms hreath. By the return of his breath, 
which was essential to his life, he revived, or lived again. 

Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel and afterward receive me to 
glory (Psalm 73: 24). 

This passage is adduced by Dr. Watts in his World to Come 
as proof that immediately at death the just are received into 
glory. In Psalm 17 the writer expresses his hope in terms 
which indicate his belief in resurrection. It matters not 
whether the same Psalmist wrote both psalms or not; the 
faith of God's ancient worthies was the same. In Psalm 17, 
the portion of the wicked is contrasted with that of the 
righteous. The wicked seem to prosper, being filled with 
all this world's goods; but they have their portion in this 
life only. The righteous are often poor and oppressed now, 



CONSIDERATION OF PASSAGES 59 

but they can rejoice as did the Psalmist : "As for me, I will 
behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when 
I awake, with Thy likeness." This is plain proof that the 
hope of resurrection was part of the ancient faith. This also 
shows that the reception into glory takes place at the return 
of Jesus Christ to raise the faithful dead and make them par- 
takers of His glory. As the apostle Paul said in writing to 
the Colossians : "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with 
Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, 
then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3: 3, 4). 

For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even 
one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, 
they have all one breath: so that a man hath no pre-eminence over a 
beast; for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust 
and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that 
goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to 
the earth? (Eceles. 3: 19-21). 

Though in Scripture the primary meaning of "soul" and 
"spirit" are distinct, they are often spoken of by some who 
believe in natural immortality as one and the same. So this 
passage is often supposed to teach the separation of the spirit 
from the body; the spirit being immortal and departing, in 
the case of the righteous, to the enjoyment of eternal bliss; 
the body returning to the dust from whence it was created. 
A careful examination of this passage will show that it will 
not admit of this application. The spirit is no more than 
the breath of life which is common to man and beast. "As 
the one dieth, so dieth the other. Yea, they have all one 
breath." Solomon was acquainted with the Egyptian philoso- 
phy previously referred to concerning the immortality and 
transmigration of souls. He had married a daughter of the 
Egyptian king. He does not, in this passage, give support 
to their doctrine by declaring that the spirit of man goes 
upward, while the spirit of the beast goes downward, as the 



60 THE ATONEMENT 

Authorized Version might at first sight appear to indicate. 
He distinctly states, on the contrary, that "all go unto one 
place/^ Concerning the spirit he does not make two state- 
ments, but asks two questions — two questions which enquire 
who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the 
spirit of the beast downward; from which it may be inferred 
tliat they do not. The Septuagint Version is as follows: 
"As is the death of the one, so is the death of the other ; and 
there is one breath to all; and what has man more than the 
brute ? nothing ; for all is vanity. All go unto one place ; all 
were formed of the dust and all will return to dust. And 
who has seen the spirit of the sons of man, whether it goes 
upward? and the spirit of the beast, whether it goes down- 
ward to the earth?'' The Revised Version supports this ren- 
dering: ^'Who knows the spirit of man, whether it goes 
upward? and the spirit of the beast, whether it goes down- 
ward to the earth?" Solomon does not support, but chal- 
lenges, the false doctrine. It is not true that at death the 
spirits of some men are exalted to become gods, and the spirits 
of others driven to -animate the groveling beasts. The truth 
which Solomon enunciates is that as the beast yields up its 
breath and dies and becomes unconscious, so does the man 
yield up the breath and dies and becomes unconscious. "All 
are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." 

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit 
shall return unto God who gave it (Eecles. 12: 7). 

This does not refer to an immortal, conscious spirit, which 
in the hour of death departs from the body to the immediate 
presence of God. To understand the passage fully it will be 
necessary to first see what is comprehended in the early part 
of the statement: "Then shall the dust return to the earth 
as it was." Gen. 2 : 7 says : "And the Lord God formed 
man of the dust of the ground, and breathed, into his nostrils 



CONSIDERATION OF PASSAGES 61 

the breath of life ; and man became a living soul/' The whole 
man was formed of the dust of the ground. He was perfect 
in organization, but lacked life. So God breathed into his 
nostrils the breath of life. That was the spirit which came 
from God, and which is common to all the animal creation. 
As the animal dies, gives up the spirit, or breath, and returns 
to dust, so does the man die (the whole man, not a part only), 
and the breath which animated him, as it animated the beasts, 
returns to God, who gave it. It does not return in a con- 
scious, personal form; it returns to that store of spirit, or 
breath, which is in the possession and power of God, and 
whence men and animals are continuall}^ supplied and kept in 
being. 

Now, that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bnsh, 
when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, 
and the God of Jacob. For He is jnot a God of the dead, but of the 
living: for all live unto Him (Luke 20: 37, 38). 

This is supposed to teach that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
and consequently all God's faithful ones, are now alive. It 
does not, however, as such would be opposed to the express 
teaching of the Scriptures that the dead need to be raised. 
Long ago, this discord between the doctrine of the immor- 
tality of the soul and the hope of resurrection was seen and 
declared. William Tyndale said : 'Tn putting departed souls 
in heaven, hell, and purgatory, you destroy the arguments 
wherewith Christ and the apostles prove the resurrection. 
.... If the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be not in 
as good case as the angels be? And then what cause is there 
of the resurrection?" Tyndale saw plainly that it would be 
folly to re-unite a soul, which had been in the enjoyment of 
its reward for many years, to a body which before was only 
a burden and a hindrance to the soul's full powers. Even 
if the body is to be glorified, what necessity is there for a 
body at all, if the soul can enjoy the perfection of bliss with- 



62 THE ATONEMENT 

out it for hundreds, and, in some cases, thousands of years? 
The immortality of the soul and the entrance of the righteous 
into their reward immediately at death cannot agree with the 
revealed doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. There are 
no dead at all if it be true as an epitaph has it, that "this 
mortality is but the shadow of death, not its reality : the birth- 
pangs of a larger and fuller life.'^ God knoweth the end from 
the beginning. In His purposes these worthies, though they 
have died, shall live again in a better and more glorious con- 
dition. Therefore they live unto Him. He is their God and 
will manifest Himself as such in their resurrection to life for 
evermore. 

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were 
dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, 
eternal, in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to 
be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven; if so be that 
being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in 
this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be 
unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up 
of life. Now He that wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, 
who also hath given us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are 
always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body 
we are absent from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight) ; 
we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the 
body, and to be present with the Lord (II Cor. 5: 1-8). 

It is thought that this passage proves that at death the 
soul, the real man, leaves the body to be present with the 
Lord. But the passage does not speak of Paul's hope as being 
disembodiment. He did not wish to be unclothed, as he 
would be in death, but clothed upon with his new nature which 
is from heaven. He was in his earthly nature, and because of 
its weakness, its sinful tendency, its mortalit}-, he groaned to 
be delivered, and to be clothed upon with his enduring nature. 
Writing to the Colossians he said : "Ye are dead, and your 
life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life. 



CONSIDEEATION OF PASSAGES 63 

shall appear, then shall 3^e also appear with Him in glory" 
(Colos. 3 : 3, 4). When Christ returns from the heavens, He 
will endow His saints wdth immortality, that mortality may 
be swallowed up of life. Writing earlier to the Corinthians, 
when referring to Christ^s return, Paul said: "Behold, I 
show you a mystery ; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be 
changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last 
trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be 
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this cor- 
ruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put 
on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on 
incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, 
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death 
is swallowed up in victory'^ (I Cor. 15 : 51-54) . The Lord Jesus 
is in heaven, and is made after the power of an endless life. 
He is coming to earth again to change the corruptible bodies 
of His saints that they may be like unto His glorious body. 
While in this natural, mortal condition, the living saints are 
absent from their Lord. When unclothed in death they are 
also absent from Him. When they are raised and glorified, 
when they are clothed upon with their house from heaven, 
when Christ, who is their life, shall appear, they will be 
present with Him. This last was the glorious condition for 
which Paul hoped, as expressed in this quotation. 

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. .... For I am 
in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with 
Christ; which is far better. Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is 
more needful for you (Philip. 1: 21, 22, 24). 

Paul's hope as expressed in the previous quotation is ex- 
pressed here also. No exposition of this passage will do which 
is not in harmony with the general teaching of the Scriptures. 
Therefore the doctrine of glorification immediately at death 
cannot obtain any support from this citation. How may it be 
harmonized with the truth concerning the death-state? Paul 



84 THE ATONEMENT 

was a j^ealous worker for Christ. He was assured of his 
acceptance at Christ's return, as witnessed by his confident 
anticipation expressed to Timothy: "I have fought a good 
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith : hence- 
forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day ; and 
not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appear- 
ing'^ (II Tim. 4: 7, 8). While he lived he was a source of 
comfort and counsel to those who were of like precious faith. 
It was needful that he should abide with them. But for his 
own sake, his manifold tribulations and afflictions would be 
over if he fell asleep, and he would await in peace the day of 
his Lord's appearing. This was his supreme desire, to be with 
Christ, for then he would receive the crown of life and endless 
glory. In death the passage of events cannot be measured, 
for the dead know not anything. Therefore the first thing 
that would affect the apostle's consciousness after his decease 
would be his Lord's return, when he would be ushered into His 
presence and made partaker of His glory. 

And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest 
into Thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, 
To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise (Luke 23: 42, 43). 

It is supposed that both Jesus and the penitent thief were 
in paradise that day, the same day on which the crucifixion 
took place. This cannot be. Jesus was in hades, or as the 
Authorized Version has it, "hell," between His death and 
resurrection. Peter said: "Neither was He left in hades, 
nor did his flesh see corruption'^ (Acts 2 : 31, Revised Ver- 
sion). The general conception of paradise is that it is in 
heaven, and not in hell (hades). It cannot be, then, that the 
general opinion of Christ's answer is correct. There are two 
suggestions which do no violence to the text, and are in 
harmony with the context. 



CONSIDEEATION OF PASSAGES 65 

The first is that the position of the comma makes a dis- 
tinct change in the sense of the passage. It must he remem- 
bered that the punctuation of the English Bible is not the 
gospel-Avriters' and is not necessarih' correct. If the comma 
is placed after "to-day" the passage will read : "Verily I say 
unto thee to-da}', Thou shalt be with Me in paradise," which 
would be equivalent to saying : "I tell thee now, thou shalt be 
with Me then.'^ AYe do not suppose that Christ's answer would 
refer to anything but what the thief asked about. It is most 
probable that he had heard Jesus preaching of the kingdom, 
but like others disbelieved Him, and when crucified felt in the 
same disposition toward Him. But so powerful were the 
supernatural manifestations that attended the crucifixion that 
he was constrained to believe as did others, "Truly this was 
the Son of God." Believing, he besought the Savior : "Lord, 
remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." That 
kingdom is not yet established. Christ has not yet come from 
tlie heavens, clothed in all His regal splendor and majesty. 
Consequently the paradise to be associated with that kingdom 
is not yet existent. One day ere long it will be, and then wdll 
the promise contained in Christ's answer be realized. 

The second suggestion is that "to-day" is used for "that 
day." "Verily I say unto thee, in that day thou shalt be with 
Me in paradise." Such a usage of "to-day" or "this day" is 
found in other parts of the Scripture. "Hear, Israel : Thou 
art to pass over Jordan this day to go in to possess nations 
greater and mightier than thyself" (Deut. 9: 1). These 
words were uttered by Moses some time before the entrance 
into Canaan. The Septuagint rendering of this passage has 
semeron, the same word as in Luke 23 : 43. So in Ex. 12, 14 : 
"And this day shall be unto you for a memorial." "This day" 
refers to the day of the passover, the fourteenth day of the 
month, although the instructions concerning it were given at 
least five days before, possibly more. So Jesus answered: 



66 THE ATONEMENT 

^'To-day," the day you ask Me about, the day of My kingdom, 
"thou shalt be with Me in paradise." 

And they stoned Stephen, calling npon God, and saying, Lord 
Jesus, receive my spirit (Acts 7: 59). 

When the spirit or breath of life is given to an individual it 
may be termed his so long as he possesses it. Without it he 
cannot live. When Stephen died he knew that his life was 
hid with Christ in God," and that when Christ should appear 
he also should appear with Him in glory. Confidently, then, 
he resigned all into the care of Jesus; he prayed that the 
spirit whereby he lived might be kept to again animate him at 
the time appointed for the bestowal of immortality upon the 
faithful. In the same confidence the Lord Jesus Himself, 
when He expired upon the cross, committed His spirit into the 
Father^s keeping: "Father, into Thy hands I commend My 
spirit'' (Luke 33: 46). 

For as the body without the spirit (Margin, breath) is dead, so 
faith without works is dead also (James 2: 26). 

True, the body without the spirit is dead. Adam was 
formed a perfect man, so far as organization was concerned; 
but without the spirit or hreath of life he was dead. With 
that added, he lived ; when that was taken away, he died and 
returned to dust. 

But ye are come .... to the spirits of just men made perfect 
(Heb. 12 : 22, 23). 

Sinai was a scene of terror, and its law was one of rigorous 
exactions. The dispensation of which Christ is the Head is 
one of love and liberty and excelling glory. Among the things 
connected with it are the spirits of just men made perfect. 
The question arises: When are they made perfect? Some 
of the just men are mentioned in the previous chapter — men 
whose faith commended them to God, and the writer says they 
"all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having 



CONSIDEEATION OF PASSAGES 67 

seen them afar off.'* Later in the same chapter he says: 
•^'These all, having obtained a good report through faith, 
received not the promise; God having provided some better 
thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect" 
(Heb. 11: 23, 39, 40). These just men will be perfected at 
Christ's glorious return. They will be made like Him. Then 
all those who are connected with Him and have been faithful 
to that association shall attain to the same perfection. 

Knowing that shortly I must put off this tabernacle (II Peter 
i: 14). 

This is a figurative way of speaking of death. From the 
Scriptures it has been shown that the body is not a mere 
tabernacle for the real man to dwell in awhile. Consequently 
this figurative way in which Peter refers to his approaching 
death must not be taken literally to oppose the plain Scrip- 
tural testimony. 

By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison 
(I Peter 3: 19). 

This is often taken to support the doctrine of the conscious 
survival of men's spirits after death, and their continued 
existence in hades. The passage, however, says nothing about 
hades. It gives no indication as to the locality of the preach- 
ing. This must be ascertained from other parts of the Bible. 
No warrant is given elsewhere for the belief that the gospel 
is preached to those who have ceased to live. What is the 
prison? Who are the spirits in prison? A marginal refer- 
ence is made to Isa. 42 : 7, and to Isa. 61 : 1 : 'To open the 
blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and 
them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.'^ This is 
figurative of the work of Christ, bringing light to them that 
sit in darkness. It cannot literally refer to those who were 
in dungeons in Palestine. It refers to those who were pris- 
oners of death. Christ is the Light, to deliver them out of 



68 THE ATONEMENT 

darkness. No other means can avail to deliver them from 
death, except Christ. So in Isa. 61 : 1 : "The Spirit of the 
Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me 
to preach good tidings imto the meek; He hath sent Me to 
bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim libert}^ to the captives, 
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." This 
is how Christ preached by the Spirit to those who were in 
prison, who were sitting in darkness with no hope of deliver- 
ance from death. He revealed Himself as the Wa}^, the Truth, 
and the Life, but they believed Him not. By the Spirit of the 
Lord He preached His gospel ; and it was by that same Spirit 
that He was raised from the dead and quickened. Those to 
whom He preached were like those to whom Noah preached. 
Noah had a message of salvation, but none would hear. Christ 
had a message of salvation, and very few would hear. The 
spirits preached to are not disembodied spirits, for the Bible 
takes no account of such. 

The appearance of Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Trans- 
figuration is held as proof of the present existence of the 
conscious spirits of the dead. But such does not necessarily 
follow from the account of the Transfiguration. It is a ques- 
tion which will never be settled to the satisfaction of all 
whether this account is of a vision only, or whether Moses and 
Elijah were actually there in person. If it were the latter it 
must be in harmony with God's Word. Concerning Elijah,^ 
we have no record of his death; it would be quite easy for 
him to be there personally. But we read that Moses died and 
was buried by God. If it were God's will he could have 
been temporarily raised to life as Lazarus was. Who shall 
say God nay? It cannot be that Moses was raised to die no 
more, or Jesus would not have been the First-fruits of them 
that slept. Either Moses and Elijah appeared in vision; or 
if in person, Moses must have been temporarily raised to life. 



CONSIDEEATION OF PASSAGES 69 

The parable of the Eich Man and Lazarus is taken to prove 
the departure of the soul at death either to heaven or to hell. 
In reply to this it is only needful to say that it must not con- 
tradict the plain teaching of the whole Word. Parables must 
not be taken to support a doctrine which an abundance of 
literal teaching opposes. The story is founded on a belief 
which has crept into the theology of the Jews through their 
association with the outside nations — Babylonians, Greeks, and 
Egyptians. Jesus used it to teach them a lesson, but His use 
no more sanctions the theology of it than His reference to 
casting out demons by Beelzebub sanctioned the belief that such 
was possible. Again, the parable, considered literally, would 
be productive of many inconsistencies with the popular doc- 
trine as to the nature and the dwelling-place of souls. As this 
parable will be referred to again in the next chapter it may 
be left till then for further consideration. 



CHAPTEE V. HELL 

I am the -first and the last, and the Living One; and I 
was dead, and 'behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have 
the Tceys of death and of hades — Eev. 1: 17, 18, B. V. 

It has already been stated that the doctrine of the Atone- 
ment has been seriously affected by the addition to the Adamic 
sentence of something which is not contained in the divine 
record. It has been supposed that man was consigned not to 
death, but to unending life in torment in hell. It is the object 
of this chapter to expose the fallacy of this doctrine, and to set 
forth the Scriptural doctrine as to the locality and nature of 
hell. 

Many are the sermons that have been preached to urge the 
sinner to repentance by presenting to him an awful picture of 
the doom which is supposed to await him, if unrepentant, in 
hell. Its horrors have been painted in the most terrible colors, 
and the duration of its tortures has been set forth by the most 
striking figures. 

An evangelical tract tells of a young man who went into a 
gospel tent in Dundee and said that he had no fear of hell, 
and was told to go home and put his hand in the fire for a 
quarter of an hour and after that he would have a wholesome 
dread of hell-fire. It then describes the agony which is sup- 
posed to seize upon a sinner when he thinks of an eternity to 
be so spent : 

Oh, can it be that I must spend eternity in hell, 

In misery unutterable among the damned to dwell; 

No rest, no peace, no light, no love, but never-ending grief. 

And this forever — no redress, no prospect of relief? 



HELL 71 

Mr. Spurgeon lias been one of the foremost modern preach- 
ers of this dreadful doctrine. In many of his sermons awful 
descriptions are given of the supposed agonies of those in hell. 
Thus he says : 

Suffice it for me to close up by saying that the hell of hells will 
be to thee, poor sinner, the thought that it is to be forever. Thou 
wilt look up to the throne of God, and on it will be written '^ For- 
ever ! ' ' "When the damned jingle the burning irons of their torments, 
they shall say ' ' Forever ! ' ' When they howl, echo cries ' ' Forever ! ' ' 

"Forever'' is written on their racks, 

*' Forever" on their chains; 
"Forever" burneth in the fire, 
* ' Forever ' ' ever reigns. 

Dr. Watts devotes more than eighty pages of his World to 
Come to a description of the punishments of hell. One would 
almost suppose from the minuteness of the description that he 
gives that he had been privileged to behold the sufferings of 
the wicked there : 

O dreadful state of an immortal creature which must forever 
be its own tormentor, and shall know no relief through all the ages 
of its immortality! .... there is and must be an eternal heart- 
ache, for there are no broken hearts in hell in any sense whatever. 
There the eyes are weeping and the hands wringing, and the tongue 
almost dried with long wailings and outcries, and the teeth gnashing 

with madness of thought It must be intense and constant 

misery to feel eternal hunger with no bread to relieve it, keen desire 
of dainties with no luxurious dishes to please their humorous taste; 
eternal thirst without one drop of wine or water to allay or cool it; 
eternal fatigue and weariness without the power to sleep ; and eternal 

lust of pleasure without any hope of gratification Evil angels, 

wicked and unclean spirits, with all their furious dispositions and 

active powers, will increase the misery of the damned O could 

we turn aside the veil of the invisible world and hold the bottomless 
pit open before you, what bitter groans of ghosts would you hear, 
not only oppressed and agonizing under the wrath of a righteous God, 
but also under the insults of cruel devils! As there is joy among the 
angels of heaven when a sinner repents, or when a soul arrives safely 



72 THE ATONEMENT 

at those blessed mansions, so when a rebellious and obstinate criminal 
is sent down to hell, you will hear the triumph of those malicious 
spirits over him, with the voice of insulting pride and hellish joy. 
. . . . O that the present survey of these horrors of soul, these com- 
plicated distresses and miseries from within and without us, and 
from the fire of the wrath of God, and the mutual insults, railing, 
and injuries of men and devils, might lie with its due weight upon 
our spirits now, while we are in the land of hope. 

These quotations show what a terrible conception of the 
sinner's doom Dr. Watts had ; but some things are here stated 
which are the doctor's own surmises, and not facts divinely 
revealed. It is true the Bible speaks of the joy among the 
angels in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, but it no- 
where speaks of joy among devils over a sinner lost. If the 
most powerful motive to holiness is fear, it is strange that the 
Bible is silent on this matter. 

The doctor has formulated a catechism for children, in 
which the following question and answer occur : 

Q. What must become of you if you are wicked? 
A. If I am wicked I shall be sent down to everlasting fire in hell, 
among wicked and miserable creatures. 

Dr. Watts could see the impossibility of a nature which 
cannot endure a few moments^ burning now being able to 
endure the unending burning of this dreadful hell hereafter. 
He therefore indulges in one of the wildest flights of human 
fancy when he says that God will perhaps 

frame such bodies for them to dwell in as shall be a hateful burden 
and an incessant plague to them throughout all the ages of their 
duration. 

Such a view of God's anger and malice is altogether more 
than it is possible for reasonable beings to believe; yet the 
doctor says further that 

a serious meditation of hell, in all its exquisite pain and sorrow, will 
enhance our value of the salvation of Christ, and Avill exalt our 



HELL 73 

esteem and honor of the love of God, who has delivered us from 
eternal death. 

Impossible ! Impossible ! that such a view of the great God 
can teach us that there is one spark of love in Him, much less 
teach us that He is love. The purgatory of Eoman supersti- 
tion would be better than the hell of Dr. Watts' belief, for 
purgatory has a ray of hope for those who are supposed to 
enter its fires; after being thoroughly purged from their sins 
they are said to be admitted to eternal bliss; though the 
Romish doctrine of purgatory has no more foundation in 
Holy Writ than the popular opinion concerning hell. 

Writers on the horrors of hell have taxed their ingenuity to 
find langiiage strong enough to express the awfulness of the 
torments wdiich the wicked are supposed to endure there. Par- 
ticularly have there been many attempts to make the eternity 
of their duration in some way intelligible to the human mind. 
One sample, taken from a little work entitled Persuasives 
to Early Piety, will suffice : 

There the fire never shall be quenched. Could a lost soul drop 
but one tear once in ten thousand years, and do this till a sea as vast 
as all the seas on earth together were filled with tears, all its suffer- 
ings in that long, long period would be but the beginning of eternal 
misery. All those millions of years of wretchedness would bring 
the unhappy soul no nearer to an end of its torments than one poor 
fleeting hour. 

Milton, in Paradise Lost, undertook to narrate how man fell 
from the good estate of his creation and brought woe into this 
world. He holds that Satan is a fallen archangel who was cast 
out of heaven because he headed a rebellion and' raised war 
there, and was consigned to hell forever, together with those 
who followed in his rebellion; that being thus lost he deceived 
man and has involved all sinners in the same doom as himself 
and his rebel angels. Milton thus describes the hell to which 
Satan was cast : 



74 THE ATONEMENT 

At once, as far as angel's ken, he views 

The dismal situation waste and wild; 

A dungeon horrible on all sides round. 

As one great furnace flamed, yet from those -flames 

No light, but rather darkness visible 

Served only to discover sights of woe, 

Eegions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 

And rest can never dwell, hope never comes 

That comes to all; but torture without end 

Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed 

With ever-burning sulphur uneonsumed. 

Such place eternal justice had prepared 

For those rebellious, here their prison ordained 

In utter darkness, and their prison ordained 

As far removed from God and light of heaven 

As from the center thrice to the utmost pole. 

About seventy lines further on he says : 

Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild; 
The seat of desolation, void of light, 
Save what the glimmering of those livid flames 
Casts pale and dreadful? 

It will be seen what a contradiction this is to the former state- 
ment, an evidence of the human origin of the idea. The 
above are from the first book of the Pm'adise Lost. In the 
second book the poet says : 

Beyond this flood a frozen continent 
Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms 
Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land 
Thaws not, but gathers heaps and ruin seems 
Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice. 



Thither, by harpy-footed furies haled 

At certain revolutions all the damned 

Are brought; and feel by turns the bitter change 

Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce; 

From beds of raging fire to starve in ice 

Their soft ethereal warmth and there to pine 



HELL 75 

Immovable, infixed, and frozen round. 
Periods of time; thence hurried back to fire. 

For all these statements as to the nature of hell and the 
eternity of its torments^ the writers believed that the Scrip- 
ture gave its warrant. The doctrine has therefore been 
preached in all its dreadful horror to move the ungodly to 
repentance by appealing to their fear; but such awful teach- 
ing has no foundation in the Word of God. A "thus saith the 
Lord"' cannot be found for the monstrous assertions that have 
been made concerning hell ; but it is a very easy thing to find 
a "thus saith Socrates" or a "thus saith Plato" or a "thus 
saith Virgil.'^ The last quotation from Paradise Lost follows 
a description of the various rivers and channels of hell, which 
description is a substantial reproduction of a story contained 
in Plato's Pliaedo. When Socrates had almost ended his dis- 
course on the soul's immortality, which has already been re- 
ferred to, he said to those with whom he was discoursing: 
"I'll tell you a pretty story that's worth your hearing." He 
then described what was generally believed by the ancients 
concerning hell, which consisted of various parts named Tar- 
tarus, the Decan, the river Archeron, the Acherusian lake, the 
river Phlegethon, the lake of Styx, and the river Cocytus. 
The dead were supposed to be led by demons through these 
various parts and undergo a kind of purgatory. At the end 
of the narrative Socrates added a confession which is of itself 
sufficient to take away all the value of his story. He said : 

No man of sense can pretend to assure you that all these things 
are just as I have said; but all thinking men will be positive that 
the state of the soul and the place of its abode after death is abso- 
lutely such as I have represented it to be, or at least very near it, 
provided that the soul be immortal. 

What an uncertain sound from the greatest of the Greek 
philosophers ! What a sorry finish to his discourse ! — all this 



76 THE ATONEMENT 

is absolutely true, or if not absolutel}^, very near it, on con- 
dition that the soul be immortal ! What a foundation for the 
doctrine which has been so fiercely proclaimed, especially in 
the Middle Ages! What an origin for that which has been 
considered the most powerful motive to holiness ! It is no 
wonder that those who, with the increased light of the present 
day, and with hearts filled with human sympathy, have in- 
vestigated the matter with a view to seeing whether it is God's 
declaration or not, have come to the conclusion that the doc- 
trine is a gigantic fraud which has been foisted upon credulous 
and simple minds. Many are the leaders of the present 
religious thought who have discarded the dreadful teaching; 
and some have even dared to publicly utter their voices and 
to write against it. 

As will be shown afterwards, God's character has been 
greatly maligned by those who attribute to Him such a dread- 
ful purpose of exquisitely tormenting poor sinning beings; 
and it cannot be doubted that herein is one of the most potent 
causes of infidelity that has ever been in operation. Men have 
been told that this is the intention of the Creator of mankind, 
and with honest indignation they have refused to believe in 
such a malicious being. Instead of finding out that such is 
not the Creator's revelation of Himself, they have refused to 
have anything further to do with the matter, and have drifted 
onto the seas of agnosticism and atheism. 

The late Dean Farrar expressed his abhorrence of the doc- 
trine in the following manner : 

I declare and call God to witness, that if the popular doctrine 
of hell were true, I should be ready to resign all hope, not only of a 
shortened, but of any immortality, if thereby I could save, not 
millions, but one single human soul from what fear and superstition 
and ignorance and inveterate hate and slavish letter worship have 

dreamed and thought of hell I would here and now, kneeling 

on my knees, ask Him that I might die as the beasts that perish, and 
forever cease to be, rather than that my worst enemy should endure 



HELL 77 

the hell described by Tertullian^ or Jonathan Edwards, or Mr. Moody, 
or Mr. Spurgeon, for one single year. Unless my whole nature were 
changed, I can imagine no immortality which w^ould not be abhorrent 
to me if it were accompanied with the knowledge that millions of 
poor suffering wretches — some of whom on earth I had known and 
loved — were writhing in agony without end or hope. 

Would that all who occupy the pulpits of the churches could 
see the same light; then would there be a more abundant 
cause for seeing the greatness of God's love, than, as Dr. 
Watts says, by meditating on hell's horrors and being grateful 
for deliverance therefrom. How much more glorious to know 
that God, whose chief attribute is love, has not destined that 
those who do not His will shall writhe in the inexpressible 
tortures of hell, of which Milton again says : 

Where pain of unextinguishable fire 
Must exercise us without hope or end. 

If such torture were the sinner's doom, there would be some 
reason in w^hat Milton gives as Adam's soliloquy after his fall 
and sentence. Bitterly lamenting, he is supposed to say : 

As my will 
Concurred not to my being, it were but right 
And equal to reduce me to my dust. 
Desirous to resign and render back 
All I received, unable to perform 
Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold 
The good I sought not. To the loss of that. 
Sufficient penalty, why hast Tliou added 
The sense of endless woes? Inexplicable 
Thy justice seems. 

Well might Adam reason thus if such were his lot. But it 
is not. The sinner is not doomed to suffer with the intensity 
of superhuman being this unutterable anguish of body and 
mind without end or hope. Is it conceivable that He whom 
John describes as Love can intend to thus torture the crea- 
tures He has formed? Surely He has designed some more 



78 THE ATONEMENT 

merciful punishment for sin. Human minds do not, and 
cannot, invent sucli exquisite torment for law-breakers. The 
murderer is usually put to death in a wa}^ which will make 
his sufferings of as short duration as possible. Even the 
horrible cruelties which the true Christians of the middle 
ages were called upon to endure when branded as heretics by 
the corrupt Eoman church, cannot compare with the sup- 
posed torments of hell. Is it possible that God, who is per- 
fection in all respects, whose loving-kindness and mercy and 
compassion are so great, can inflict upon His creatures more 
awful agonies than man would wish to? Emphatically no! 
Away with such a thought, and listen to the Psalmist's dec- 
laration: "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to 
anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide; 
neither will He keep His anger forever" (Psalm 103: 8, 9). 
Yet it is a fact that some declare that God will personally 
visit hell to see that these tortures are properly carried out, 
and that the righteous will find cause for rejoicing because 
the sinners shall be so punished; and Mr. P. L. Patten, of 
Princeton, ;N"ew Jersey, has gone so far as to say in Herzog's 
Dictionary of Theology, that he denies "that the end of God's 
government is the promotion of happiness." 

Kor is it just that so short a life of sin should be visited 
with unending punishment. Why should not deprivation of 
blessing, and a return to original dust, be sufficient penalty ? 
Yet Dr. Watts has said again: "One single sin which thou 
wilt not part with, will create unsufferable misery." foolish 
thought! How opposed to the divine character which, 
instead of being thus unjust, is both just and merciful ! 

If such an awful doctrine were true and the sinners were 
delivered over to Satan, the chief sinner, to be tormented by 
him eternally, we should have the incongruity of God having 
created a being whom He has made immortal and therefore 
cannot destro}^, and whose sole occupation is to endeavor to 



HELL 79 

frustrate all Jehovah's purposes. Fov if the devil is forever 
to torment the damned he must be immortal. We cannot 
conceive of God^ who doeth all things well, having caused 
such a state of things to exist. 

It is recorded that at some future time there shall be no 
more curse. All curses shall then have passed away. If the 
supposed hell existed it would certainly be a curse. There- 
fore it would have ultimately to pass awa}^, as surely as God 
has spoken. Consequentl}^, the unending life of the damned 
in its torments, blaspheming forever their Creator, is but a 
myth, a vain and awful speculation. 

BIBLE TEACHING CONCERNING HELL 

Since man is not by nature immortal, it cannot be that at 
death the sinner enters upon an eternity of misery in hell. 
What then is hell ? The Bible frequently speaks of hell, but 
never of the hell of popular fancy. There are four words 
so translated in the Scriptures — the Hebrew sheol in the Old 
Testament, and the Greek liades, gelienna, and tartarus in 
the N'ew Testament. 

Tartarus only occurs once: "For if God spared not the 
angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered 
them unto chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment" 
(II Peter 2:4). The significance of tartarus is "dense dark- 
ness." It therefore cannot be the place of fire and brimstone 
which hell is supposed to be, whose flames are said by Milton 
both to Idc void of light, and to cast a light pale and dreadful. 
All that we know by experience concerning flames is that they 
are associated with light. 

SHEOL 

Slieol occurs 65 times in the Old Testament, and is ren- 
dered "hell" 31 times, "grave" 31 times, and "pit" 3 times. 



80 THE ATONEMENT 

The following quotations will show its use: In the Revised 
Version the original word sheol is left untranslated ; it signi- 
fies "the grave" where all the dead go. 

Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave 
(Psalm 31: 17). 

Oh that Thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that Thou wouldest 
keep me secret until Thy wrath be past (Job 14: 13). 

Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; 
and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and 
their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling (Psalm 
49: 14). 

Thy pomp is brought down to the grave (Isa. 14: 11). 

For the grave cannot praise Thee, death cannot celebrate Thee; 
they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth (Isa. 
38: 18). 

Tliey shall go down to the bars of the pit when our rest together 
is in the dust (Job 17: 16). 

In the passages where "hell'^ is given as a translation of 
slieol, ''^the grave" might be substituted without destro}'ing 
the sense ; in many cases it would even improve it : 

In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning: 
.... I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I 
cast him down to hell {sheol, the grave) with them that descend into 
the pit (Ezek. 31: 15, 16). 

They shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncir- 
cumcised, which are gone down to hell {sheol, the grave) with their 
weapons of war; and they have laid their swords under their heads 
(Ezek. 32: 27). 

The wicked shall be turned into hell {sheol, the grave) and all the 
nations that forget God (Psalm 9: 17). 

Slieol cannot possibly be the hell of popular belief, for 
what is recorded concerning it will not harmonize with what 
is generally understood of hell. 

1. It is not a place of disembodied spirits^ for it is on 
record that material things have gone to sheol: 

For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning (Gen. 
37: 35). 



HELL 81 

Then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave 
(Gen. 42: 38). 

And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and 
their houses and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all 
their goods. They and all that appertained to them went down alive 
into the pit and the earth closed upon them (Numb. 16: 32, 33). 

Let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace .... But 
his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood (I Kings 
2: 6, 9). 

Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; 
and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and 
their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling (Psalm 
49: 14) — a strange way, indeed, of expressing the everlasting tor- 
ment of undying souls in a hell after the Miltonic pattern! 

They shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uneir- 
^umcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war; 
and they have laid their swords under their heads (Ezek. 32: 27). 

This last quotation would be a strange way to describe the 
condition of a soul in a fiery hell. It is perfectly intelligible 
when it is borne in mind that most savage nations have had, 
and some still have, a custom of burying their dead with their 
swords and weapons of war, believing that they would be of 
service in a future world as in the present. Most peoples 
have had hope of a future of some kind, and some whose 
chief pastime has been hunting have had their hounds buried 
with them that they might be at hand in the chase which 
they thought would be continued after death. 

2. Sheol is not a place where the wicTced are forever in 
agony and blaspheming the God who created them; for it is 
described as a land of forgetfulness and unconsciousness: 

In death there is no remembrance of Thee; in the grave who shall 
give Thee thanks? (Psalm 6:5). 

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for 
there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the 
grave, whither thou goest (Eccles. 9: 10). 

For the grave cannot praise Thee, death cannot celebrate Thee: 



82 THE ATONEMENT 

they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth (Isa. 
38: 18). 

3. Sheol is not a place where the ivicked alone go; for it 
is on record that righteous ones have looked forward to it as 
their resting-place : 

Jacob, one of the fathers of the faithful, one of God 's most worthy 
servants, said, when he imagined his son Joseph was dead, ''I will 
go down into the grave unto my son mourning" (Gen. 37: 35). 

Job said, ' ' O that Thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that Thou 
wouldest keep me in secret, until Thy wrath be past, that Thou 
wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me" (Job 14: 13). 

It is prophetically said concerning Christ, ' ' Thou wilt not leave 
My soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see 
corruption" (Psalm 16: 10). 

In speaking of sheol as ^^the grave'^ it mnst be borne in 
mind that it is so used in a general sense. Other words are 
used to indicate a particular grave. Sheol denotes the gen- 
eral receptacle of the dead — the grave, whether it be on land 
or in water. Jonah could speak of his experience as being in 
sheol, because it seemed to him that it would be his grave. 
He did not know of the deliverance that was in store for 
him: "I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, 
and He heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and Thou 
heardest my voice" (Jonah 2:2). 

HADES 

Hades is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew sheol. There- 
fore what is true of the one is likewise true of the other. 
Psalm 16 : 10 is quoted by Peter in his Pentecostal address, 
where sheol is rendered by hades: "Thou wilt not leave My 
soul in hell." 

Hades occurs 11 times, and is translated "hell" 10 times, 
and "grave" once. Since sheol represents the grave in the 
general sense of the term, hades does as well. In every in- 



HELL 83 

stance but one this translation, "the grave/^ will harmonize 
with the context; the onl}^ exception being in the parable of 
the Eich Man and Lazarus, which, however, must not con- 
tradict the plain testimony of the Word, and which is capable 
of explanation apart from the ordinary hell-fire theory; but 
more concerning this later on. The following facts about 
Jiades must be carefully noted : 

1. It is not a place ivliere only sinners go. It is said of 
Jesus that He was not left in hades. He must have been 
there for some time, being afterwards delivered therefrom. 
Peter said that David made the above-quoted prophecy in 
reference to the resurrection of Christ, that his soul (E. V., 
He) was not left in hell (hades, the grave), neither did His 
flesh see corruption. It would be strange if the hell of 
Milton's fancy were here intended; but it is quite intelligible 
when it is seen that Christ's burial in the tomb of 
Joseph of Arimathea, and His resurrection therefrom, are 
here referred to. 

2. It is not a place of disemhodied spirits. Of Caper- 
naum Christ said: "And thou, Capernaum, which art ex- 
alted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell" (Matt. 11 : 
23). Capernaum has been literally buried in the dust; its 
site is a subject of dispute. But Capernaum is not in the hell 
which is popularly believed in. 

3. It is not a place of eternal torment. If it were a place 
of torment at all, it would not be a place of eternal torment. 
It is recorded that every curse shall pass away; and in the 
prophetic book of Eevelation it is written: "And the sea 
gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell {hades, 
the grave) delivered up the dead which were in them; and 
they were judged every man according to their works. And 
death and hell were cast into the lake of fire" (Eev. 20: 
13, 14). 

Other testimony to the fact that hades is only of tem- 



84 THE ATONEMENT 

poraiy power is found in the early part of the same book, 
where Jesus says : '^'I am He that liveth and was dead ; and, 
behold, I am alive for evermore; Amen; and have the keys 
of hell and of death'^ (Eev. 1: 18). And Jesus said to 
Peter: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build 
My church; and the gates of liell shall not prevail against 
if' (Matt. IG: 18). In both these last citations reference is 
made to the power of Christ to deliver those of His church 
who may have died and been buried, from the bondage of the 
grave; there is no reference to a deliverance from eternal 
torture. 

The parable of the Eich Man and Lazarus is often thought 
to be proof that Jesus believed in the torments of the ungodly 
in hell ; but a little consideration will suffice to show that this 
is not the case. In the first place, it is a parable. Some will 
deny that, but almost everyone will admit it. A parable 
must not be taken when it stands alone, to subvert the 
unanimous testimony of the entire Word. The plain teach- 
ing of the Scriptures is that slieol and liades represent the 
grave. This one parabolic utterance must not be held to 
negative an abundance of plain testimonies as to the nature 
of hell. Further, if this parable did represent the tortures 
of the wicked in hell, it states some things which could not 
possibly be harmonized with the popular belief on the matter. 
The righteous and the wicked are supposed to be in sight of 
each other, and the pains of those in the fire are supposed to 
be capable of being allayed by water. It cannot be a literal 
description of the woes that await the ungodly. Jesus refers 
to a belief which had become incorporated with the Jewish 
tradition, but which bad its origin with the surrounding 
nations; and by such reference He teaches the lesson that if 
Moses and the prophets are unable to convict a sinner of the 
evil of his ways, neither would one be able who rose from the 
dead. It was the lesson that the Savior wished to impress, 



HELL 85 

not the details of the parable. x\s already stated, His refer- 
ence to their false theor}' no more signified His belief of it 
in this instance than His reference on another occasion to 
casting out demons by Beelzebub indicated that He consid- 
ered such a thing possible. 

GEHENNA 

Gehenna occurs 12 times, and is always translated "hell." 
It is the texts where Gehenna occurs that are supposed to 
most favor the popular conception of hell. A careful ex- 
amination of these passages will disprove this idea. Gehenna 
is associated with fire, but not with unending fire destined to 
torture the wicked. 

Gehenna signifies, according to Parkhurst, the valley of 
Hinnom, and is so named after a person who was once the 
possessor of it. It was near Jerusalem, and was the place 
where the barbarous practice of burning children to Moloch 
was carried on. Of Ahaz it is recorded that "he burnt in- 
cense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his 
children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen 
whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel" 
(II Chron. 28 : 3). When Josiah made a reformation among 
the people, he defiled this valley on account of the wickedness 
that had been practiced there, and made it the receptacle for 
the refuse of the city of Jerusalem. "And he defiled 
Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, 
that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass 
through the fire to Moloch" (II Kings 23 : 10). In the days 
of Christ^s preaching, the valley was still in its defiled con- 
dition, and it was the extremity of degradation to be con- 
demned to burial in Gehenna. The corrupting carcasses 
produced devouring worms, and fires were continually kept up 
for the purpose of destroying them, in order to prevent any 
pestilential outbreak. 



86 THE ATONEMENT 

It is this Gehenna to which Jesus refers in His preaching, 
and Parkhurst says : "A Gehenna of fire, Matt. 5 : 22, does, 
I apprehend, in its outward and primary sense, relate to 
that dreadful doom of being burned alive in the valley of 
Hinnom." And again he says : "Our Lord seems to allude 
to the worms which continually preyed on the dead carcasses 
that were cast out into the valley of Hinnom, and to the 
perpetual fire kept there to destroy them." 

Jesus either used the term literally or symbolically. If He 
used it literally, it cannot refer to the hell where the wicked 
are supposed to suffer unending agonies, where unceasing 
fires shall perpetually agonize them; for the fires of Gehen/na 
have long since ceased to be. If He used it symbolically, it 
cannot be a figure of the popularly understood hell. There 
is nothing in its nature but the presence of fire which can 
form any parallel. Gehenna's fires have long since ceased; 
hell's fires are supposed to be eternal. Gehenna's fires de- 
stroyed everything that was put into them; hell's fires are 
supposed to preserve their victims in endless being. Gehenna 
was a place of death ; hell is supposed to be a place of eternal 
life. 

The immortality of the wicked in hell is supposed to be 
taught by Mark 9: 43, 44, but it is not so: "It is better 
for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands 
to go into hell (Gehenna), into the fire that never shall be 
quenched; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not 
quenched." If this proves the eternal existence of anything 
it is of the worm and of the fire; and the eternity of the 
agent of destruction does not necessarily prove the eternity 
of the objects of destruction. From other parts of the Word 
it may be clearly seen that the fate of the wicked is utter 
destruction, not preservation in misery. See Mai. 4 : 1 : 
"For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; 
and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be 



HELL 87 

stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith 
the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor 
branch." So also Psalm 37: 20: "But the wicked shall 
perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of 
lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume 
away." And Psalm 145: 20: "The Lord preserveth all 
them that love Him; but all the wicked will he destroy." 
Many other passages testify to the same truth, that instead 
of the wicked being perpetuated in unutterable agony, they 
shall be completely cut off or destroyed. 

The unquenchable fire does not denote unceasing fire. It 
is said that Sodom and Gomorrah "are set forth for an ex- 
ample, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" (Jude, vs. 7). 
That fire has ceased, but its effects are eternal. That fire was 
not extinguished till it had done its work. So the Lord says 
in- Jer. 17: 27: "Then will I kindle a fire in the gates 
thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it 
shall not be quenched." That fire was kindled, but it has 
gone out. It did not cease until its work was done; there 
was then no further need for it, and it died away. Similar 
language is elsewhere used, and the deduction to be drawn is 
that any fire which is kindled by God to execute vengeance 
upon the rebellious, cannot be stayed by any inferior power, 
shall never be quenched, but shall accomplish its work with- 
out let or hindrance, and then, its necessity being over, it 
shall cease. 

It is probable that Gehenna will be literally the scene of the 
future punishment of the wicked, in the great day of judg- 
ment. It is probable also that fire will be used as an agent 
in their destruction, as Sodom of old was destroyed by fire. 
In any case, that does not involve the unending burning of 
the wicked in Gehenna^ but their complete annihilation. 
Gehenna of old, even if not the actual locality of future 
retribution, is, without any demur, its most fitting symbol. 



88 THE ATONEMENT 

The Bible teaching concerning hell, it will be seen from 
the above, is simple, intelligible, and rational. How much 
more in harmony with the character of God than those vain 
conceptions which ignorance and superstition have formed. 
What a comfort it is to know that the dense mists which have 
so long enshadowed the simple and glorious truth are now 
being gradually lifted, that soon they shall forever be dis- 
pelled, and in unsullied splendor God's revelation shall beam 
forth. God has not purposed to torture for inconceivable 
ages the beings He has created, but intends, in merciful 
justice, to forever cut off the wicked from the portion of the 
redeemed. 



CHAPTER VI. SATAN 

And the God of peace shall hruise Satan under your 
feet shortly — Romans 16: 20. 

As the Bible does not countenance the popular view con- 
cerning hell, it is not to be expected that it will support the 
popular conception of Satan, since hell is supposed to be his 
kingdom. The two words, "helF^ and ^^Satan," have together 
exercised a great influence of fear over the minds of people 
in past ages. Let us briefly state what is the general opinion 
respecting Satan. 

He is supposed to be a supernatural, personal being, and 
has been variously styled, his most usual descriptions being 
^''Satan'^ and "the devil." As described by Milton in Para- 
dise Lost, he is supposed to have been one of the highest 
order of heavenly beings, an archangel, who was jealous of 
the exaltation of the Son over all angels, the Son being the 
supposed Second Person of a Triune God. In his jealousy 
he drew away the third part of the angelic hosts. 

And with ambitious aim 
Against the throne and monarchy of God 
Eaised impious "war in heaven, and battle proud, 
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power 
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky 
With hideous ruin and combustion down 
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell 
In adamantine chains and penal fire 
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms. 

The details of the supposed war are given in the later 
parts of Paradise Lost; how for three days, with all the 



90 THE ATONEMENT 

artillery that angelic power could invent, Satan and his hosts 
fought with Michael and his hosts, and seemed equally 
matched, until the Son Himself headed the fight and drove 
the rebels out of heaven to the dreadful place of which 
Milton's descriptions have already been quoted. Here Satan 
and his crew resolved that it was 

Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven, 

and for revenge he planned the frustration of God's purpose 
in the creation of the earth and the human family, found his 
way through chaos to Eden, from within the serpent effected 
the Adamic transgression, and returned to hell to exult over 
his successes. It is further supposed that the rebel angels 
are his messengers, who are ever engaged in opposing God's 
plans and seeking to drag all mankind down to hell to share 
with them its torments. 

It is sad to think that many who have come to see the 
unscripturalness of the dogma of human immortality should 
still cling to the personality of Satan and his messengers, 
and believe them to be ever engaged in opposing God's plans 
and seeking to frustrate all His designs. The Scripture 
does not teach such a doctrine, which, if true, would involve 
the great inconsistency, already mentioned, of God having 
created an immortal being who must ever run counter to His 
Jiighest resolves; who, being immortal, cannot be destroyed; 
and who, judging from the supremacy of evil to the present 
time, would seem to have far the greater power. 

The testimonies thought to teach Satan's rebellion and 
downfall have no relation whatever to such things. Other 
testimonies are directly opposed to such a doctrine. Who- 
ever the fallen angels of which Peter speaks may have been, 
and whatever may have been their sin (concerning which 
there is no explicit revelation in the Scriptures), certain it is 
that they are not now abroad deceiving and seducing man- 



SATAN 91 

kind to sin and damnation; for Peter testifies concerning 
them that they are cast down to tartarus, delivered unto 
chains of darkness and reserved unto judgment. Jude speaks 
also of some (not giving any clue as to who they are) in 
this manner: "And the angels which kept not their first 
estate, but left their own habitation. He hath reserved in 
everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the 
great day." This lends no countenance to the popular view, 
for, whoever these may be, they are now held in chains of 
darkness, and are therefore not wandering up and down the 
earth as man's deceivers. 

The scene depicted in Eev. 12 : 7-9, has no reference to 
Milton's conception of Satan's history : 

And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought 
against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and pre- 
vailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And 
the great dragon was east out, that old serpent, called the devil, and 
Satan, which deeeiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the 
earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 

This is among the visions which John saw of things to come 
to pass after, not before, John saw them. Consequently this 
cannot refer to the war which Milton describes as having 
taken place before the creation of man. The Eevelation is 
of things "which must shortly come to pass" (1: 1), and 
things "which must be hereafter" (4: 1). This particular 
vision is associated with others whose fulfilment can be his- 
torically traced between John's day and this. The vision is 
symbolic. It is not literal history, but symbolic prophecy. 
It does not therefore refer to actual war in heaven between 
Michael and his angels and the devil and his angels, but 
represents some historical matters since John's day under 
that symbolism. 

Nor does the fall of Lucifer, which Isaiah speaks of, refer 
to what Milton applies it to. The whole 14th chapter of 



92 THE ATONEMENT 

Isaiah's prophecy refers to the downfall of a Babylonian 
monarch, not to Satan's rebellion and expulsion from heaven. 
"Thon shalt take up this proverb against the king of Baby- 
lon How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son 

of the morning" (vss. 4, 14), Surely it would be a forced 
exposition which would apply this to Satan, and so wrest it 
from its evident application to the downfall of a proud Baby- 
lonian king from the exalted or heavenly position he occupied. 
Neither is it fair to make the gratuitous addition to what 
Moses records concerning the fall of Adam, that instead of 
it being the serpent that tempted Eve it was Satan in the 
serpent. As before stated, the record says nothing to that 
effect, and the later references to the event add nothing of 
that character; then why should we now seek to improve 
upon the Mosaic or apostolic version of man's fall by adding 
to the simple and intelligible account something which 
requires great credulity in order to its reception? If such 
were true it would be manifestly unfair to condemn and 
punish the serpent for Satan's sin, and not a word be said 
about Satan being punished. Similarly, if men and women 
are "the victims of a higher angelic race of transgressors," 
it is not just for them to be doomed to eternal torture in hell 
with their seducers. 

Other poets besides Milton have sung of Satan, or the 
devil. Many have had similar conceptions of him to Milton's; 
some have been entirely opposed. Shelley, in "Peter Bell the 
Third," is nearer the truth when he says : 

The devil, I safely can aver, 

Has neither hoof, nor tail, nor sting; 

Nor is he, as some sages swear, 

A spirit neither here nor there — 
In nothing, yet in everything. 

He is — what we are ; for sometimes 
The devil is a gentleman; 

At others a bard bartering rhymes 



SATAN 93 

For sack; a statesman spinning crimes, 
A swindler living as he can. 

The popular conception of Satan, like that of hell, has had 
its origin in the mythology of the ancient heathen nations. 
It has not been derived from the Word of God, nor does it 
fmd any support therein. Parkhurst says: 

It is not, however, improbable that the Christians borrowed their 
goat-like pictures of the devil, with a tail, horns, and cloven feet, 
from the heathenish representations of Pan the Terrible. 

BIBLE TEACHIXG COXCERNKs^G SATAN 

The word ^'Satan'^ means "adversary.'^ It is so rendered 
in the following passages: 

And the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary 
against him (Numb. 22: 22). 

What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah, that ye should 
this day be adversaries unto me? (II Sam. 19: 22). 

And God stirred him up another adversary, Eezon the son of 
Eliadah (I Kings 11: 23). 

Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame (Psalm 109: 29). 

The Hebrew is transferred to the Greek, and has the same 
meaning in the following passages, w^here it is left untrans- 
lated in the English Version : 

He rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan; for thou 
savorest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of 
men (Mark 8: 33). 

Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and 
again; but Satan hindered us (I Thess. 2: 18). 

Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered 
unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme (I Tim. 1: 20). 

To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the 
flesh (I Cor. 5: 5). 

Clearly "Satan" is here used to represent an adversary, but 
not the being who is supposed to be a fallen archangel, the 
greatest adversary and seducer of mankind. It was scarcely 



94 THE ATONEMENT 

reasonable to deliver men to him, to learn not to blaspheme. 
Peter could not be that individual. Satan is supposed to see 
rather to the destruction of the soul than of the flesh. 
"Satan'^ is used in Scripture to denote an adversary, an 
opposing influence, whether personal or not, and it freqeuntly 
denotes that great enemy to godliness, sin in its various 
manifestations. 

Though the use of the name "Satan" seems at times to 
denote personality, it does not of necessity do so. Personifica- 
tion of abstract principles is very common in Scripture. 
Wisdom is spoken of as a woman standing and calling unto 
the children of men, and offering them great rewards if they 
will embrace her. So sin, the opposite principle, may legiti- 
mately be personified, without thereby necessitating actual 
personality. If sin is the dominant principle in anyone's 
character, that one may justly be designated a Satan, or an 
adversary. 

The other appellation of Satan, "the devil,'^ is from the 
Greek diabolos, and signifies a false accuser, or a slanderer. 
This is a kindred meaning to "adversary," for an adversary 
will frequently act as a false accuser or a slanderer. The 
word diaholos is so rendered in the following passages : 

For men shall be ... . false accusers (II Tim. 3: 2, 3). 
The aged women, likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh 
holiness, not false accusers (Titus 2:3). 

Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers (I Tim. 3: 11). 

In these places diaholos cannot refer to the arch-enemy of 
men, the devil of popular conception, nor can it in John 6 : 70 : 

Jesus answered them. Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of 
you is a devil? 

That the devil is Scripturally used to denote sin will be 
manifest from the following consideration. In the epistle 
to the Hebrews Christ's mission is thus spoken of : 



SATAN 96 

Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, 
He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through 
death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is 
the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all 
their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb. 2: 14). 

It seems strange that by death the arch-fiend who is sup- 
posed to seduce mankind should be destroyed, if such is 
intended by the writer. If that were the case, no doubt 
there would be other testimony to the same effect in refer- 
ence to the death of Christ. But there is none. Let us see 
whether it is possible that an3^thing else is intended. What 
is that which has the power of death? Clearly an answer to 
that question will decide who or what is intended by "the 
devil," for here he is so spoken of. The 5th chapter of the 
letter to the Eomans gives abundant evidence on this point: 

By one man sin entered into the world, and death hy sin 

through the offense of one many be dead .... by one man's offense 
death reigned by one .... by the offense of one judgment came 
upon all men to condemnation .... by one man's disobedience 
many were made sinners .... sin liath reigned unto death (Eom. 
5: 12, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21). 

Similar evidence is given by the following testimonies : 

The wages of sm is death (Eom. 6: 23). 
The sting of death is sw (I Cor. 15: 56). 
Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death (James 1: 15). 

These quotations prove that death is the result of sin; there- 
fore sin is the power that leads to death, and is consequently 
the devil which Jesus was manifested to destroy, according 
to Heb. 2: 14. Confirmatory testimony to the nature of 
Christ's work is borne by the following passages : 

What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, 
God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for 
sin (E. Y., as an offering for sin), condemned sin in the flesh 
(Eom. 8:3). 



96 THE ATONEMENT 

Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the siii of the world 
(John 1: 29). 

Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this 
present evil world (Gal. 1: 4). 

When He had by Himself purged our swis (Heb. 1: 3). 

Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many (Heb. 9: 28). 

And ye know that He was manifested to take away our siiis. 
.... For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He 
might destroy the works of the devil (I John 3: 5, 8). 

It is intelligible that by death Jesus might destroy that 
which had the power of death, and deliver all death's pris- 
oners from the house of their bondage. By dying as a holy 
sacrifice He was able to rise again from death and lead death 
captive. Having put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, 
He has become possessed of death's keys, and in due time 
will cause death itself to die. Sin in its various forms is the 
devil, the false accuser of God in opposing His plans, the 
Satan or adversary of all righteousness. 

When a personality is intended it must not be sought for 
in the fallen archangel of whom Milton sang, and who is 
supposed to have become the arch-fiend and man's arch- 
enemy; but in some person or power belonging to this earth 
in whom or in which sin reigns as a false accuser, or slan- 
derer, or adversary. A few illustrations will show that such 
an exposition harmonizes with all Scripture and does no 
injustice to the particular text. 

"Eesist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). 
This is explained by another citation : "Ye have not yet re- 
sisted unto blood, striving against sin" (Heb. 12: 4). Paul 
makes no mention of continual conflict between God and the 
devil as a fallen archangel, but says that the dual principle 
which he found at work was the divine power of holiness, 
the law of the mind, and the carnal power of sin, the law 
of the flesh, and in his letter to the Romans deals at length 
with the conflict: 



. SATAN 97 

I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: 
for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is 
good I find not. For the good that I would I do not; but the evil 
which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is 
no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, 
that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight 
in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in 
my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing 
me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members (Eom. 
7: 18-23). 

The devil that they were to resist was the tendency to sin, 
which Paul styles "the law of the flesh.'' 

"Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil ?" 
(John 6: 70). Judas was evidently intended by this refer- 
ence. Judas was a man in whom sin reigned, and it mani- 
fested itself in the betrayal of his Master for the sake of 
gain. His evil disposition, sin, was the cause of his mis- 
deeds; and this will explain another statement concerning 
him: "The devil having now put into the heart of Judas 
Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him" (John 13 : 2) ; and 
also this: "And after the sop Satan (an evil spirit of re- 
venge) entered into him" (John 13: 27). It is very prob- 
able, too, that Judas desired to involve Peter in his evil 
doings and punishment that would follow, and that such is 
referred to when Jesus said to Peter: "Satan hath desired 
to have you, that he may sift you as wheat" (Luke 22: 31). 

"Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have 
delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme" 
(I Tim. 1: 20). Satan here is something adverse to 
Hymenaeus and Alexander, which would have the effect of 
reforming them. Tribulation often has that effect. As the 
Psalmist says : "Before I was afflicted I went astray ; but 
now have I kept Thy word" (Psalm, 109 : 67). It is not to be 
supposed that Paul had delivered these backsliders over to 
the popularly understood Satan, or it would be a queer school 



98 THE ATONEMENT 

to send them to in order to learn not to blaspheme. We 
should rather expect an opposite result from his teaching. 

The same exposition will fit the following quotation : "To 
deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the 
flesh" (I Cor. 5:5). 

"Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie unto the Holy 
Spirit? .... Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine 
heart ?'^ (Acts 5: 3, 4). The second part shows what is the 
meaning of the first. Sin was the root of the matter, an evil 
disposition. 

"Get thee behind Me, Satan" (Matt. 8: 33), were words 
addressed to Peter because he expressed himself in terms 
which were adverse to God^s plan. 

"The devil shall cast some of you into prison" (Rev. 2 : 10). 
This does not refer to the Satan of Milton's fancy, but to the 
persecuting Eoman power which was adverse to God and 
those that were His, and subjected the early Christians to 
various kinds of suffering and often to death. 

"Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh 
about, seeking whom he may devour" (I Peter 5:8). This 
does not refer to the devil as popularly believed in, but to 
those agents of persecution who sought to exterminate the 
Christians. 

It is and will continue to be an open question whether the 
temptation of Jesus recorded in the early part of the gospel 
narrative was subjective or objective — whether or not there 
was a personal tempter. Both views have been held, and it is 
unwise to bolster up a doctrine by doubtful evidence; and 
even if the tempter were personal it certainly was not the 
foul fiend of popular belief, but some powerful human 
tempter. 

"And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which 
is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years" 
(Rev. 20: 2). This refers to the binding of sin during the 



SATAN 99 

millennial reign of Christ. It cannot support the popular 
view, for it testifies that the devil is that old serpent, whereas 
the popular doctrine maintains that the devil was not the 
serpent, but was in the serpent. Sin shall be bound, but not 
destroyed, during Christ^s blessed and glorious reign on earth. 
It shall be utterly destroyed at the end of that millennial 
reign, and so shall death. 

"And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet 
shortly'^ (Eom. 16: 20). This refers also to the destruction 
of sin, however manifested. So does Christ's statement: 
"I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven" (Luke 10: 
18), which is prophetic of the ultimate destruction of sin 
and its removal from the high or exalted or heavenly places 
where it now holds sway. Most human institutions are 
branded with iniquit}-, and Christ refers to their ultimate 
destruction. 

"I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where 
Satan's seat is : and thou boldest fast My name, and has not 
denied My faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was My 
faithful martyr, who was slain amongst you, where Satan 
dwelleth" (Eev. 2: 13). This refers to the presence in the 
ecclesia at Pergamos of some adverse influence, as is evident 
from the reference to some holding the faith pure ; but it can- 
not mean that the Satan of popular belief dwelt there. 

If any other testimonies be advanced to support the popu- 
lar doctrine concerning Satan or the devil, they may be har- 
monized in a similar manner with the rest of God's Word, 
which nowhere lends countenance to the awful conception 
which men have, in their vanity, darkness, and superstition, 
formed about the influence which is the adversary of God 
and righteousness. 

BIBLE TEACHING CONCERFIN'G DEMON'S 

If the Bible does not countenance the idea of the arch- 



100 THE ATONEMENT 

fiend, or outcast archangel, who is supposed to have hecome. 
the greatest enemy and tempter of manl^ind, it is not likely 
it will support the doctrine that a multitude of inferior spirits 
are at his bidding, abroad in the earth to seduce men and 
frustrate God's purposes. Demons, unclean or evil spirits, 
mentioned in various parts of the New Testament, are not 
fallen angels. Fallen angels, as we have already seen, are 
reserved in everlasting chains of darkness unto judgment. 
Christ's use of language which was current concerning hades 
in the parable of the Eich Man and Lazarus did not commit 
Him to the belief of that doctrine which the Jews had im- 
bibed from surrounding nations, i^either does His use of 
familiar language on the subject of demoniacal possession 
commit Him to the theory which the Jews had received from 
the surrounding nations with regard to demons or wicked 
spirits. The Zoroastrians of Persia held the doctrine which 
many Jews in Christ's day believed, and it is very probable 
that the Jews got their ideas from the Zoroastrians and from 
the Greeks^ who held almost identical views, that there exists 
a dual government of the world, a good and a bad, each with 
a head and subordinates. Since the Bible does not reveal the 
awful supernatural being which popular fancy has conceived 
Satan to be, it cannot consistently reveal what have been 
considered as his subordinates. 

What are the demons or unclean spirits referred to ? They 
are diseases, chiefly mental, which were attributed to the 
influence of these wicked spirits, but which are nothing more 
than derangements of the normal natural condition. Lunacy, 
deafness, dumbness, blindness, and epilepsy were all attributed 
to the power of these evil spirits; but there are few today 
who would' attribute them to such a cause. It reminds one 
of the old-fashioned notion that evil spirits took possession 
of the churches when the congregations were away and needed 
bells to be rung for a certain time before the congregation 



SATAN 101 

returned in order to dispossess the churches of them. Such 
myths deserve to be buried with the age which produced 
them, and should not receive the slightest credence from 
thoughtful minds. 

It is thought that our Lord lends indisputable support to 
the doctrine in the parable recorded in Matt. 12 : 43-45, 
where He says: 

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through 
dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will 
return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, 
he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and 
taketh with himself scA'en other spirits more wicked than himself, 
and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man is 
worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked 
generation. 

In these three verses Jesus refers to the belief that unclean 
or evil spirits (fallen angels) dwelt in the deserts and at 
times took hold of human beings, or possessed them. It was 
supposed that when they were driven from their human 
habitation by any means they returned to the deserts. If 
they found that the human dwelling was better and returned, 
several would come wdth them. So the last state of that man 
would be worse than the first. Christ uses this belief to teach 
that if an unclean or unholy spirit of wickedness is driven 
from a man by any means (reference being particularly had 
to the then-present preaching of righteousness), and its place 
is not taken by the spirit of holiness or uprightness, oppor- 
tunity is given for the wickedness to return and more firmly 
take hold of its victim. If evil habits once indulged in are 
broken off and afterwards recommenced, it is almost sure to 
be in a worse form. The number seven has no more sig- 
nificance than to add emphasis. 

Such is the general application; but there was a particular 
application as well: ^^Even so shall it be unto this wicked 
generation.'^ Israel's sin waxed worse and worse. They re- 



102 THE ATONEMENT 

pented not at the preaching of Jesus. At last they crucified 
the Son of God, and God's wrath was poured upon them more 
severely than ever in the end of their national existence, 
when they were given over to the Romans, and many of them 
to slavery or death. 

The Bible doctrine of Satanism is that Satan and the devil 
are terms used to denote sin in its various manifestations, 
Avhether it be an abstract principle or incarnated in individ- 
uals or organizations; and that maladies, mental or physical, 
are sometimes spoken of in language which, whilst expressing 
the traditional belief of those to whom it was addressed, did 
not commit, those who used it to sanctioning the doctrine any 
more than one who today used the words '^lunatic" and "be- 
witched'' would thereby be committed to the ancient super- 
stitions which are associated with these words. 



CHiiPTEE VII. THEOEIES OF THE 
ATONEMENT 

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God 
hy the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we 
shall be saved by His life. And not only so, but we also 
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have 
now received the Atonement — Eom. 5: 10, 11. 

Views of the Atonement have been held which are not 
only out of harmony with Scriptural testimon^^, but also 
opposed to reason. A few of the false theories will be con- 
sidered and their fallacy pointed out before we proceed to 
point out the true Bible doctrine. 

A ransom from_ death has been provided by the Lord Jesus 
Christ; and it has been contended by some that the price of 
the ransom was paid by Christ to Satan in satisfaction of 
certain claims which that being. was supposed to have upon 
man owing to sin. This theory is overturned when it is 
remembered that the curse pronounced upon Adam was 
death, and that the Scriptures reveal to us neither the sup- 
posed Satan, nor the hell of torment over which he is sup- 
posed to preside, and wherein man is said to suffer the 
penalty of sin if he dies unrepentant. 

There is a theory which says that "God Himself must 
suffer in one exceptional sacrifice if sinners are to be saved, 
and the stability of the divine government within itself, and 
over other minds, is to be preserved." This is a statement of 
the case by Mr. Edward White, in his Life in Christ. He 



104 THE ATONEMENT 

continues: "Here alone we find the revealed reason of the 
Atonement by the death of Christ, considered as an expiation 
or ground for pardoning sinners. It is not a blow falling 
on an innocent creature outside the Godhead. It is a blow 
falling from the sinful creature on the Godhead itself.'^ This 
theory is not scripturally revealed. Nowhere does the Scrip- 
ture say that God Himself must suffer — and that, too, at the 
hand of His creature. Nowhere does it state, as Hooker has 
said, that "man hath sinned, and God hath suffered." The 
Scripture tells us that Christ Jesus, the son of God, died to 
redeem sinners; which is a very different thing from saying 
that "the whole Godhead, which is righteousness and love, 
sacrifices itself in the agonies of a human death that man, 
though a sinner, may live forever." The weakness of this 
theory, which has no Scriptural warrant, will be more ap- 
parent when the true Bible testimony is set forth concerning 
the Atonement. 

Nor is it true that the object of the Atonement was to 
pacify the wrath of an angry God, whose anger had been 
roused by man's disobedience and could not be averted till 
full compensation had been paid for that sin. It is supposed 
that the first man, being a sinner, no human being could 
redeem the race; therefore -that the Second Person of the 
Trinity took upon Himself human form and gave His life 
a ransom for mankind; that this, the sacrifice of One equal 
with God Himself was alone able to appease God's wrath. 
This view has found abundant expression in both prose and 
verse. Milton, in Paradise Lost, gives a supposed conversa- 
tion between God, the Son, and the angelic hosts on the 
subject of man's redemption. The Creator thus speaks : 

Man disobeying 
Disloyal breaks his fealty, and sins 
'? Against the high supremacy of heaven, 

Affecting Godhead, and so losing all, 



THEORIES OF THE ATONEMENT 105 

To expiate his treason hath nought left; 
But to destruction sacred and devote 
He, with his whole posterity must die; 
Die he or justice must; unless for him 
Some other able, and as willing pay 
The rigid satisfaction, death for death. 

The Son, moved to pity and compassion, thus offers Himself 
as man's Eedeemer and details the redemptive work and 
its results: 

Behold Me then; Me for him; life for life 

I offer; on Me let Thine anger fall; 

Account Me man; I for his sake will leave 

Tliy bosom, and this glory next to Thee 

Freely put off and for him lastly die 

Well pleased; on Me let death wreak all his rage. 

Under his gloomy power I shall not long 

Lie vanquished; Thou hast given Me to possess 

Life in Myself forever; by Thee I Hve, 

Though now to death I yield, and am his due, 

All that of Me can die; yet that debt paid. 

Thou wilt not leave Me in the loathsome grave 

His prey, nor suffer My unspotted soul 

Forever with corruption there to dwell; 

But I shall rise victorious, and subdue 

My vanquisher, spoiled of his vaunted spoil; 

Death his death 's wound shall then receive and stoop 

Inglorious, of his mortal sting disarmed. 

I through the ample air, in triumph high 

Shall lead hell captive, maugre hell and show 

The powers of darkness bound. Thou at the sight 

Pleased, out of heaven shalt look down and smile; 

While, by Thee raised, I ruin all My foes. 

Death last, and with his carcass glut the grave; 

Then with the multitude of My redeemed 

Shall enter heaven, long absent, and return. 

Father, to see Thy face "wherein no cloud 

Of anger shall remain, but peace assured 

And reconcilement; wrath shall be no more 

Thenceforth, but in Thy presence joy entire. 



106 THE ATONEMENT 

The angelic hosts adore the Son for His gracious offer to 
redeem man and sing His praises thus: 

He to appease Tliy wrath and end the strife 
Of mercy and justice in Thy face discerned, 
Eegardless of the bliss wherein He sat 
Second to Thee, offered Himself to die 
For man's offence. 

Milton also puts into the mouth of Michael the archangel 
the following declaration concerning the work of the Son: 
So only can high justice rest appaid. 

In his "Ode on the Nativity/' Milton gave expression to 
the same sentiments thus: 

This is the month and this the happy morn 
Whereon the Son of heaven's eternal King, 

Of wedded maid and virgin mother born. 
Our great redemption from above did bring. 
For so the holy sages once did sing, 

That He our deadly forfeit should release 

xA.nd with His Father work us a perpetual peace. 

That glorious form, that light unsufferable, 
And that far-beaming blaze of majesty 

Wherewith He wont at heaven's high council table 
To sit the midst of Trinal Unity, 
He laid aside; and here with us to be 

Forsook the courts of everlasting day 

And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay. 

The Second Article of Eeligion of the Established Church 
of England expresses the same theory: 

The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from ever- 
lasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance 
with the Father, took man's nature in the womb of the blessed 
virgin, of her substance; so that two whole and perfect Natures, 
that is to say the Godhead and the Manhood were joined together 
in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God 
and very Man, who truly suffered, was crucified, dead and buried 



THEORIES OF THE ATONEMENT 107 

to reconcile His Father to us, and to be a sacrifice not only for 
original guilt but also for actual sins of men. 

Concerning the original guilt, or birth sin, it is further said 
in Article 9 : 

Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the 
Pelagians do vainly talk) ; but it is the fault and corruption of 
the nature of every man that naturally is engendered of the off- 
spring of Adam; whereby man is very far gone from original right- 
eousness and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh 
lusteth always contrary to the spirit; and therefore in every person 
born into this world it deserveth God's wrath and damnation. 

Dr. Watts, in a ^Tirst Catechism/^ has formulated the 
following question and answer : 

Q. Do you know who Jesus Christ was? 

A. He is God's own Son who came down from heaven to save us 
from our sins and God's anger. 

The following will show how the theory has permeated the 
hymnology of professing Christians : 

Behold a God descends and dies 

To save my soul from gaping hell! 
How the black gulf where Satan lies 

Yawned to receive me when I fell! 
How justice frowned and vengeance stood, 

To drive me down to endless pain! 
But the great Son proposed His blood 

And heavenly wrath grew mild again. — Watts. 

Blessed be the Lamb, my dearest Lord, 

Who bought me with His blood. 
And quenched His Father's flaming sword 

In His own vital blood. — Watts. 

'Tis finished — heaven is reconciled 

And all the powers of darkness spoiled. 

Peace, love, and happiness again 

Return and dwell with sinful men. — Stennett. 



108 THE ATONEMENT 

Come let us lift our joyful eyes 

Up to the courts above, 
And smile to see our Father there 

Upon a throne of love. 

Once 'twas a seat of dreadful wrath 

And shot devouring flame; 
Our God appeared '' Consuming fire," 

And vengeance was His name. 

Eich were the drops of Jesus' blood 
• That calmed His frowning face 
That sprinkled o'er the burning throne 
And turned the wrath to grace. — Watts. 

Such a view of God in relation to man's fall as is expressed 
in the above quotations is dishonoring in the extreme. We 
cannot so regard the God whom we have been accustomed to 
look upon as a God of love and mercy and compassion. Truly 
in Him do not reside those malicious and vengeful charac- 
teristics which some would attribute to Him. Imagine if 
possible any of the Scripture writers penning a declaration 
to the effect that the rich drops of Jesus' blood calmed 
the Father's frowning face ! Imagine the loving apostle John 
declaring that the Father's flaming sword has been quenched 
in Jesus' blood ! Impossible ! Impossible ! 

Such a conception is produced by a straining of the mean- 
ing of a few passages such as Eomans 5 :10 : "If, when we 
were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His 
Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His 
life." It is true that the carnal mind is enmity with God, 
but it is not true that that enmity betokens on the part of 
G.od an almost implacable anger, an anger which can only find 
an end in One equal with God taking man's place, and pour- 
ing out His life-blood as a "rigid satisfaction" for man's sin. 

This vengeance theory of the Atonement is a direct contra- 
diction of the most glorious and gracious declarations that we 



THEORIES OF THE ATONEMENT 109 

find in the wliole of the divine revelation. It supposes that 
God was angry witli man for sin, but tliat because Jesus died 
for man, that anger was averted, God's flaming sword was 
quenched, and His frowning face calmed. Such a theory 
would have us believe that God loves the world because His 
well-beloved Son gave Himself for its sins. The Scripture 
tells us that the reverse is the case — that the death of Jesus 
for the redemption of man was the result, not the cause, of 
God^s love. John says "God is love,^' and again, Jesus Him- 
self said "God so loved the world, that He gave His only- 
begotten Son, that whosover believeth in Him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life." The work of redemption 
was not undertaken solely by the Son to appease the Father, 
but it had its beginning in God^s abounding love. 

More diligent investigation of the Scriptures and more 
reasonable views of God are gradually expelling the old dog- 
mas which have formed part of so-called Christian creeds, 
but which are now coming to be recognized as having orig- 
inated with the speculations of heathen philosophers. The 
Atonement is not the work of Christ alone to reconcile God 
to the world by turning His anger from it, but the work of 
God in Christ to reconcile the world unto Himself — a com- 
plete reversal of the opinion generally held concerning Jesus 
and His death. 



CHAPTER VIII. THE TRINITY 

For there is one God, and one Mediator between God 
and men, the Man Christ Jesus — I Tim. 2:5. 

The false theories of the Atonement referred to in the 
preceding chapter have arisen through misconceptions as to 
the nature and relation of the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Spirit, concerning which, as in the case of most other funda- 
mental teachings of the Scriptures, varying views have been 
held. Perhaps the view that finds most favor with Chris- 
tians of nearly every sect is that the Godhead is composed of 
three co-equal and co-eternal Beings, each of whom alone 
is God, and yet who together form but one God; and per- 
haps the Athanasian Creed is the best-known exposition of 
the doctrine. The creed is so well known that it is not nec- 
essary to set it out in detail here, but we will proceed to 
quote a very remarkable and appropriate comment upon it 
which is in harmony with our own views upon the matter : 

As it does not come within the plan prescribed for this work 
to show the unreasonableness or absurdity of the doctrine of the 
Trinity, the diligent enquirer may be requested merely to peruse 
with attention the whole of that celebrated formula, commonly 
attributed to St. Athanasius, and to examine whether the doctrine 
which it contains, as well as its damnatory clauses, are not at total 
war with the principles of reason and the dictates of common sense. 
Indeed, so palpable and numerous are its absurdities, that were it not 
acknowledged to contain the belief of the great majority of professing 
Christians, it might, with appearance of justice, be considered as 
the production of an enemy to the opinions which it inculcates. 
Were it possible to prove that three persons, each of whom is uncre- 
ated, incomprehensible, eternal, and almighty, are only one uncreated. 



THE TEINITY 111 

incomprehensible, eternal, and almighty being — that three intelligent 
agents, each of whom separately is God, are not three Gods, but only 
one God — that the Godhead of the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost is one and the same; none of these persons being before or 
after the other, none greater or less than another; and yet that they 
are essentially dissimilar; the Son alone being begotten of the 
Father, and the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the 
Son; that is, the Son and the Holy Ghost are co-eval with Him from 
whom they derived their existence — we say were it possible to prove 
such monstrous absurdities, there w^ould be no doctrine, however 
revolting to reason, which might not be entertained by the human 
mind; and it might be admitted as an established principle that we 
ought to believe because it is impossible. Well then may we say, 
as Bishop Hurd spoke of the orthodox scheme of redemption, that 
the Trinity is a doctrine at which ''reason stands aghast and faith 
herself is half-confounded. '' Well may we, with the excellent Tillot- 
son, be shocked at the irreverent and irrational details of the 
Athanasian Creed, and wish that the church ''were well rid" of it. 

In direct opposition to the Trinitarian idea is the view held 
by the Unitarians, that God is one. Though all Unitarians 
hold the unity of God, they differ considerably in opinion as 
to the relation which Jesus bore to the Father. An extreme 
view is that Jesus was a mere Man, being the son of Joseph 
and Mary. This view is equally wrong with the Trinitarian; 
it necessitates the rejection of entire chapters from the gos- 
pels, and portions of chapters from both gospels and epistles, 
and involves a belief which limits the power of God. ' 

Others who hold to the strict unity of God are prepared 
to believe the gospel account of Christ's miraculous concep- 
tion and birth; such, however, not destroying His relation 
to the human family in the matter of mortality. This is 
the view we shall seek to establish by the considerations w^hich 
follow. 

BIBLE TEACHING CONCERNING GOD 

The unity of God is one of the most plainly revealed truths 
of the Bible. Monotheism has been the firm belief of the 



112 THE ATONEMENT 

Jews in all ages, and "to them were committed the oracles of 
God." It is undoubtedly the current belief concerning Jesus 
which has hindered most the truth from being accepted by 
the Jews. Mr. Raphael, formerly a preacher at the Syna- 
gogue at Birmingham, England, said in a sermon on the 
unity of God: 

The unity of God was made known to mankind, and that knowledge 
was preserved by means which the experience of thirty centuries has 
proved to be efficient. And as this was the chief purpose for which 
the Jewish religion was instituted, so for that same purpose it still 
stands erect among the many and conflicting systems of faith which 
in that long interval have arisen and fallen, and some which still 

survive Every system which does not admit this most sacred 

doctrine meets with a flat contradiction in those records, the divine 
inspiration of which, admitted by all believers in revelation, cannot 
be better proved than by the direct and pointed manner in which 
they meet and refute every departure from this truth, that may have 
been promulgated by systems which did not come into existence till 
centuries after the sacred canon of the Old Testament was closed. 

When Christianity comes to the Hebrew race with a request 
to change the God of their worship, the God who so plainly 
revealed Himself to their forefathers, for a God of human 
imagination, it is no wonder they turn away with a righteous 
indignation. 

The following are but a few of the passages which declare 
the absolute unity of God : 

Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord (Deut. 6: 4). 

Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? 
(Mai. 2: 10). 

And Jesus answered him, TTie first of all the commandments is, 
Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord (Mark 12: 29). 

We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is 
none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, 
whether in heaven or in earth (as there be gods many and lords 
many) but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all 
things and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all 
things, and we by Him (I Cor. 8: 4-6). 



THE TBINITY 113 

Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one (Gal. 
3: 20). 

There is one body, and one spirit, even as ye are called in one 
hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and 
Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all 
(Eph. 4: 4-6). 

For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the 
Man Christ Jesus (I Tim. 2:5). 

Thus the declaration made on Horeb was believed by the 
Israelites, and preserved by Moses; it was believed by the 
later generations of Jews, and confirmed by the Lord Jesus 
and the apostles. God is 07ie. The whole Bible is stamped 
with the evidence of that truth. 

In the following passages further expressions of God's 
unity are found: 

And all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Savior and thy 
Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob (Isa. 49: 26). 

For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, 
whose name is Holy (Isa. 57: 15). 

I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King 
(Isa. 43: 15). 

For I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee 
(Hosea 11: 9). 

O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cheru- 
bims. Thou art God, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the 
earth (Isa. 37: 16). 

Denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ (Jude, 
vs. 4). 

In the last quotation distinction is made between the one God 
and the Lord Jesus Christ, thereby showing that the two are 
not component parts of one God. The same is also expressed 
in the following quotations: 

Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high (Psalm 
113: 5). 

To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare 
unto Him? .... To whom then will ye liken Me or shall I be 
equal? saith the Holy One (Isa. 40: 18, 25). 



114 THE ATONEMENT 

I am the Lord and there is none else, there is no God beside Me 
(Isa. 45: 5). 

For I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is 
none like Me (Isa. 46: 9). 

There is none like unto Thee, O Lord (Jer. 10: 6). 

My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all (John 10: 29). 

If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the 
Father: for My Father is greater than I (John 14: 28). 

Clearly, then, God is spoken of in the Scriptures as greater 
than all beings. He is greater than man and angels, greater 
than so-called heathen gods, and greater than Jesus Christ, 
according to the testimony of Christ Himself. God is spoken 
of in contradistinction to the Lord Jesus Christ, as evidenced 
by the following quotations: 

Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but one, that is 
God (Mark 10: 18). 

It is My Father that honoreth Me; of whom ye say, that He is 
your God (John 8: 54). 

Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may 
glorify Thee .... And this is life eternal, that they might know 
Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent 
(.John 17: 1, 3). 

Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, 
and your Father; and to My God, and your God (John 20: 17). 

These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the 
beginning of the creation of God (Kev. 3: 14). 

I know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God (Mark 1: 24). 

J«sus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God among you by miracles 
and wonders and signs, which God did by Him (Acts 2: 22). 

God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord 
and Christ (Acts 2: 36). 

The head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is 
the man; and the head of Christ is God (I Cor. 11: 3). 

Ample evidence has been adduced to convince any honest 
mind that the unity of God is stamped upon the whole Divine 
revelation. The quotations are made from the writings of 
both early, middle, and later times, and include the words 



' 



THE TEINITY 115 

of God Himself, of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of prophets 
and apostles. God is one, not three in one; God is Unity, 
not Trinity in Unity. 

BIBLE TEACHING COXCERXING JESUS CHRIST 

If the teaching of the Scriptures concerning the unity of 
God is so clear, their teaching concerning the Lord Jesus 
Christ is none the less so. When speaking of Jesus Christ 
it must be borne in mind that "The Christ*^ embraces more 
than one individual. Jesus the Christ is the Head of God's 
new creation, which, when complete, will include all those 
who shall have been redeemed through Him. He is spoken 
of as the Head, and they are likened to the parts of the body. 
Jesus is the Christ, or Anointed of God, in an individual 
sense ; but "The Christ" or the Christ-body, in its completion, 
embraces not only the individual Christ, but all the members 
belonging to Him. Some of these lived and died before 
Jesus of Nazareth was manifested on earth; others have 
lived and died since; some are living now; and all will one 
day be united into one glorious Christ-body. 

Jesus of Nazareth did not personally exist before His birth 
at Bethlehem. He is not co-equal with His Father in eter- 
nity of existence, nor was He, as the Athanasian Creed ex- 
presses it, "begotten before the worlds." He is the prophet 
like unto Moses, of whom it was said: "I will raise them 
up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and 
will put My words in His mouth" (Deut. 18: 18). It is 
clear from this that He was not personally pre-existent in the 
days of Moses. He had no personal existence prior to His 
birth at Bethlehem, some nineteen centuries ago. Then He 
was raised up b}^ divine power from among His brethren, 
as is recorded in the 1st and 2nd chapters of Luke's gospel. 
To Mar}', a maiden of the tribe of Judah, the angel Gabriel 
was sent with a message from God, and He said to her : 



il6 THE ATONEMENT 

Behold, thon shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, 
and shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called 

the Son of the Highest The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, 

and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also 
that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son 
of God (Luke 1: 31, 32, 35). 

Though born at Bethlehem, as recorded in Luke 2 : 7, and 
having no personal existence prior to that time, He was 
pointed to by the promise in Eden already referred to, that 
the seed of the woman should vanquish the serpent's seed. 
In the purpose of God, Jesus of Nazareth had an existence, 
for He was to be raised up as a Eedeemer; but, in the time 
of Moses, we have seen He was not personally existent. He 
was spoken of also in the later promises and foreshadowed 
by the ordinances of the Mosaic law. As Peter expressed it in 
his 1st epistle: 

Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as 
silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition 
from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a 
lamb without blemish and without spot: w^ho verily was foreordained 
before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last 
times for you, who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him from 
the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in 
God (I Peter 1: 18-21). 

Though begotten by God, through the medium of the Holy 
Spirit, Jesus was, as regards His physical nature, like the 
rest of the human race. Being born of flesh, He was flesh, 
and was subject to the same temptations, passions, and weak- 
nesses which are connected with the flesh, but, as will be 
shown hereafter, without sin. The Scriptures speak of Him 
as a Man, not as God; though He is called the Son of God 
on account of His paternity. This is vastly different from 
being called God the Son, an appellation given to Him by 
Trinitarians, but having no equivalent in Holy Writ. Jesus 
was the Son of God, not God the Son — a distinction with a 



THE TEINITY 117 

ver}^ great difference — and because He was born of a human 
mother His ph3^sical nature was akin to hers. 

The following series of quotations will abundantly show 
that the Son was not co-equal with the Father in the days 
of His earthly ministry, either in nature or in majesty. Jesus 
is often called a Man^ but never a God: 

But now ye seek to kill Me, a Man that bath told you the truth, 
which I have heard of God (John 8: 40). 

Come, see a Man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not 
this the Christ? (John 4: 29). 

Truly this Man was the Son of God (Mark 15: 39). 

Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God among you (Acts 
2: 22). 

Since by man came death, by Man came also the resurrection of 
the dead (I Cor. 15: 21). 

The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second Man is the Lord 
from heaven (I Cor. 15: 47). 

There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the 
Man Christ Jesus (I Tim. 2:5). 

Frequently the term, "Son of Man/^ is applied to Jesus : 

The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the 
Son of Man hath not where to lay His head (Matt. 8: 20). 

And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with 
power and great glory (Mark 13: 26). 

The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the 
elders and-chief priests and scribes (Luke 9: 22). 

And truly the Son of Man goeth, as it was determined (Luke 
22: 22). 

Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on 
the right hand of God (Acts 7: 56). 

Jesus is called "a Prophet'^ in the following instances : 
Nevertheless I must walk to-day, and to-morrow, and the day 

following: for it cannot be that a Prophet perish out of Jerusalem 

(Luke 13: 33). 
And the multitude said. This is Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth of 

Galilee (Matt. 21: 11). 

The woman saith unto Him, Sir, T perceive that Thou art a 

Prophet (John 4: 19). 



118 THE ATONEMENT 

And He said unto them, What things? And they said unto Him, 
Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a Prophet mighty in deed 
and word before God and all the people (Luke 24: 19). 

The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst 
of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me (Deut. 18: 15), 

Many times Jesus is styled ^^the Son/' or "the Son of God :" 

This is the will of Him that sent Me, that eveiyone which seeth 
the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life (John 
6: 40). 

He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son (I John 
2: 22). 

Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee (Psalm 2: 7). 

Say ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the 
world. Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God 
(John 10: 36). 

And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God (John 
1: 34). 

This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matt. 3: 17). 

There are many passages which speak of Jesus in a manner 
which indicates that whatever He did. He was acting through 
God's appointment. He is said to have been raised, chosen, 
given, sanctified, approved, appointed, and ordained of God 
for His mission. The inference is that Jesus was not God, 
and that He was not the Second Person of a Trinity in Unity 
of co-equals in all respects: 

Of this man's seed hath God according to His promise raised 
unto Israel a Savior, Jesus (Acts 13: 23). 

Behold My Servant, whom I have chosen; My Beloved, in whom My 
soul is well pleased (Matt. 12: 18, quoted from Isa. 42: 1). 

God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life (John 3: 16). 

Say ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the 
world, Thou blasphemest? (John 10: 36). 

Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God among you by miracles 
and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, 
as ye yourselves also knoAv (Acts 2: 22). 



THE TEINITY 119 

Consider the Apostle and High-Priest of our profession, Christ 
Jesus, who was faithful to Him that appointed Him (Heb. 3: 1, 2). 

He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He 
hath ordained (Acts 17: 31). 

The manifest testimony of the above quotations, which are 
but samples of what the Scriptures contain as to the nature 
and mission of Jesus, is that in nature He was not, in the 
days of His earthly ministry, co-equal with God, and that His 
mission is from God the Father. It has been argued by 
Trinitarians that this is explicable on the understanding of a 
twofold nature in Jesus— that He was a God-Man, that these 
references have to do with His humanit}^, and that His God- 
head was co-equal with the Father in all respects. The most 
potent reply that can be given to such an argument is that 
the Scriptures do not make known to us this twofold nature ; 
they many times speak to us of Jesus as a Man who, by the 
holiness of His life, stood far above all other men; and they 
speak of Him as the Son of God; but never once do they 
speak of Him as God the Son. Were it true that the great 
God whom the heavens cannot contain did for a time become 
imprisoned in the womb of a woman and afterwards taber- 
nacle forever in the body of a man; were it true that His 
death was only an appearance of death, only an apparent 
dying of the manhood, while the superior Godhead died not; 
then the whole plan of redemption must appear a gigantic 
scheme of deception and the example of Jesus to men would 
be but a tantalizing delusion — an example whose imitation 
would be an impossibility. If Jesus were indeed ^^very God," 
how strange His cry when on the cross, "My God, My God, 
why hast Thou forsaken Me ?" 

It has been said that the view which has been advocated in 
this chapter is derogatory to the Lord Jesus, that it is not 
ascribing to Him the honor and glory that are His. Such, 
however, is not the case. It is honoring Jesus far more to 



120 THE ATONEMENT 

believe in Him as He is revealed to us in the sacred Word, 
than to ascribe to Him what is directly opposed to the Scrip- 
ture. "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the 
only true God, and t^esus Christ whom Thou hast sent." The 
doctrine of the humanity of Jesus is so plainly taught in all 
the Scriptures that it is surprising that the Tri-theistic 
theory, akin in great measure to the heathen mythology, 
should have been able to obtain possession of reasonable 
minds. He is the Nazarene Prophet of whom Moses spake; 
the "Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," of whom 
Isaiah sang; "a Man approved of God" by miracles and won- 
ders and signs, as Peter declares; and a Man through whose 
obedience eternal life has been made possible. In God's eter- 
nal purpose such a Eedeemer was intended, and in His 
promises foretold, some thousands of years before His mani- 
festation; and "when the fulness of time was come, God 
sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 
to redeem them that were under the law" (Gal. 4: 4, 5) ; 
He sent "His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for 
a sin-offering, condemned sin in the flesh" (Eom. 8: 3); 
"As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also 
Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death 
He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, 

the devil Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to 

be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merci- 
ful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to 
make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that 
He Himself hath suffered being tempted. He is able to suc- 
cor them that are tempted" (Heb. 2: 14, 17, 18). 

BIBLE TEACHING CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT 

On examination, the Scriptures lend no support to the cur- 
rent notion that the Holy Spirit is the Third Person in a 
Triune Godhead, of equal eternity, glory, and power with the 



THE TEINITY 121 

others. It has been already stated that the use of the word 
"spirit"' is to denote "air, wind, breath, life, a state of mind, 
a power, or an influence.'' When "spirit'' is preceded by the 
word "holy," it is used in senses similar to the above, as a 
few citations will show. 

"My spirit shall not always strive with man^^ (Gen. 6:3). 
Here it represents God, or the divine mind, striving with 
man, or the human mind. 

"Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I 
flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven. Thou 
art there : if I make my bed in hell (slieol), behold, Thou art 
there" (Psalm 139: 7, 8). Here it does not indicate a 
Third Person of a co-equal Trinity, but the presence of the 
One God by His spirit, the medium of His omniscience and 
omnipotence. 

"He divideth the sea with His power, and by His under- 
standing He smiteth through the proud. By His spirit He 
hath garnished the heavens; His hand hath formed the 
crooked serpent" (Job 26: 12, 13). Here it indicates the 
medium whereby the One God performs His will; if this 
passage implied the personality of the spirit, it might rea- 
sonably be taken to do as much for power and understanding. 

"Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and 
that the Lord would put His spirit upon them" (N'umb. 11 : 
29). Here it indicates a power, or wisdom, or knowledge, 
imparted by God, to His prophets ; it certainly does not imply 
personality. 

"Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Spirit" (II Peter 1: 21). Undoubtedly it signifies here the 
inspiration, or prompting, or impulse, received from the One 
God, to enable the prophets to speak things which they often 
did not even understand. 

"The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of 
the Highest shall overshadow thee" (Luke 1: 35). Here the 



122 THE ATONEMENT 

influence or power whereby the Lord Jesus was caused to 
be born of a virgin is intended, but personality is not necessi- 
tated. The spirit is the medium for the performance of the 
will of the One God. 

"He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God; for 
God giveth not the spirit by measure unto Him" (John 3 : 
34) ; '^God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and 
with power" (Acts 10: 38). In these two passages the spirit 
is clearly that wisdom and power which God bestowed upon 
His Son Jesus, whereby He was enabled to perform His 
wonderful works of love and mercy. The same spirit was 
afterwards granted to the apostles as shown by the following 
citations: "I send the promise of My Father upon you: but 
tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with 
power from on high" (Luke 24: 49) ; "Ye shall be baptized 
with the Holy Spirit not many days hence" (Acts 1:5). 

It will be seen from the above that the Holy Spirit is the 
medium whereby Jehovah, the One God, performs His will. 
A crude illustration of the relation of the Holy Spirit to God 
may be found in the modern use of the telegraph and the 
telephone, where the subtle force of electricity is made the 
medium; or a better illustration may be found in the prin- 
ciple that underlies the recent development of wireless teleg- 
raphy. The Holy Spirit is not a Person in a Triune God- 
head, all whose parts are equal in every respect, although it 
is sometimes spoken of in a way which would indicate per- 
sonality if that were the only manner in which it was re- 
ferred to. As in the case of wisdom, personification is not 
necessarily a proof of personality; sin is sometimes personi- 
fied, without giving countenance to the popular idea of a 
personal, supernatural devil; so with the Holy Spirit, per- 
sonification does not necessitate personalit}^, and many other 
plain testimonies have a directly opposite bearing, and can- 
not be interpreted on the basis of personality. 



THE TEINITY 123 

A CONSIDERATION OF SOME PASSAGES HELD TO SUPPORT THE 
COMMON DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY 

The passages which are commonly supposed to teach the 
popular doctrine of Tri-theism cannot be allowed to over- 
throw what is the plain testimony of the Word, that God is 
one, that Jesus the Christ is His Son, and that the Holy 
Spirit is the medium for the accomplishment of the divine 
purposes. 

Some passages which speak of the mission of Jesus are 
often held to teach His personal pre-existence with the Father 
in glor}^ For instance: "God sent forth His Son'^ (Gal. 
4:4); "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful 
flesh" (Rom. 8:3). These do not refer to the sending of 
Jesus as a Person from the presence of the Father, but to 
the divinity of His mission. If it be contended that it does 
prove personal pre-existence for Jesus, no one must deny 
the personal pre-existence of John the Baptist with God 
prior to his manifestation to the people of Israel, for it is 
testified of him: "There was a man sent from God, whose 
name was John" (John 1: 6). Everyone will admit that 
this refers to the divine nature of his mission. In all fair- 
ness, then, it cannot be contended that an exactly similar 
expression proves more in the case of Jesus. 

"Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh 
and blood. He also Himself likewise took part of the same" 
(Heb. 2: 14). It is sometimes thought that this is the lan- 
guage of choice, and therefore necessitates the personal pre- 
existence of Jesus in order to that choice; but let it be ob- 
served that as much would be proved for the children, a 
similar term being used. 

Akin to the above passages are the following: "For the 
Bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and 
giveth life unto the world I came down from heaven, 



124 THE ATONEMENT 

not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent 

Me This is the bread which cometh down from 

heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the 
Living Bread which came down from heaven" (John 6 : 33, 
38, 50, 51). These, however, prove only the same as the 
former class, the divinity of Christ's mission; it was a mis- 
sion from God, a mission from heaven. It is stated in the 
8th chapter of the same book that Jesus, when speaking to 
the worldly-minded Pharisees, said: "Ye are from beneath; 
I am from above. Ye are of this world; I am not of this 
Avorld." The Pharisees were governed only by this w^orld; 
their mission was an earthly one. Jesus was governed by the 
things of another world; His mission was from above, heav- 
enly. It cannot be that Jesus refers to His personal pres- 
ence in heaven; He says farther on that the bread is His 
flesh; and no one will contend that His flesh was in heaven, 
actually pre-existent before His birth at Bethlehem. The 
language is evidently not literal. 

There are two notable passages which are often thought 
to prove the personal pre-existence of Jesus w^ith the Father 
in glory. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "For ye know^ the 
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, 
yet for yonr sakes He became poor, that ye through His 
poverty might be rich" (II Cor. 8:9). It is contended that 
the meaning is that Jesus was once rich in glory in the pres- 
ence of the Father; that He left it all for a time and came 
to dwell in flesh with men, in order that men might be ex- 
alted to the same condition of glory. The words of Jesus 
in one of His recorded prayers are thought to confirm this 
view: "And now, Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine 
own self, with the glory which I had with Thee, before the 
world was" (John 17: 5). Let it be again observed that a 
few passages must not be allowed in their apparent sense to 
antagonize the whole tenor of the Scriptures. If possible 



THE TRINITY 125 

without doing any injustice to tlie passages they must be 
harmonized with the general teaching. These can be so 
harmonized. The end is known from the beginning unto 
Him who is ordering all things. In His purpose the Lord 
Jesus was glorified from the foundation of the world. If 
the strict literalism of this passage be contended for, as much 
must be granted for a similar statement concerning Christ's 
death, for He is spoken of as "the Lamb slain from the 
foundation of the world'' (Eev. 13: 8). If a strictly literal 
interpretation is necessary in the one case, showing that Jesus 
personally pre-existed with the Father in glor}^, such is also 
necessary here, showing that Jesus was slain to take away 
the world's sin before the foundation of the world — which 
the most ardent Trinitarian will not contend for as an ac- 
complished fact; if the second passage is not to be so forced, 
neither is the first obliged to be. With the Father, or in the 
Father's purpose, Jesus had a glory, even from the beginning 
of Jehovah's redemptive scheme, and it was for the bestowal 
of this glory that the Son pleaded, not for re-endowment with 
a glory which had been previously laid aside. 

"Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to 
be equal with God" (Philip. 2:6). The Trinitarian argu- 
ment is that Jesus "counted it no act of robbery, no invasion 
of another's prerogative, but His own strict and unques- 
tionable right, to be equal with God" First let it be observed 
that what Wesley here says is not in accord with what Jesus 
Himself says. Jesus never claimed equality with God. He 
said plainly: "My Father is greater than I." If it be replied 
that He also said "I and My Father are one,'^ the answer 
is to be found in His prayer that His disciples might also be 
one as He and His Father were — one in spirit, one in aim, 
one in character. Jesus nowhere claimed equality with God; 
it is certainly not fair for Trinitarians to claim for Him 
what He not only never claimed for Himself, but plainly 



126 THE ATONEMENT 

denied. To understand this passage it must be considered as 
part of the general argument of the apostle, not as a separate 
and distinct clause. The apostle is exhorting to obedience 
and cites the pre-eminent example of the Lord Jesus, "who 
being in the form of God (that is, as is also said of the first 
Adam, that He was created in the image of God, not a proof 
that He is God, but that there is a likeness in some respect 
and to some degree, not necessarily referring to nature), 
thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Now this last 
clause has been translated by able scholars in a manner which 
harmonizes with the context and gives a clearer idea of the 
apostle's meaning: 

Did not think equality with God a thing to be seized with violence 
(S. T. Coleridge) ; 

Did not regard it as a prey to be like God (E. Taylor) ; 
Thought not the being as God a thing to be seized (S. Sharpe) ; 
Not a thing to be seized on esteemed the being equal with God 
(J. B. Eotherham) ; 

Yet did not meditate a usurpation to be like God (Diaglott). 

It will be seen from the above that the apostle's argument is 
this: Equality with God was not what Jesus regarded as a 
thing to be seized on, or grasped at. Though by inheritance 
having obtained a more excellent name than the angels. He 
humbled Himself to a perfect obedience, a Man among men, 
and was content to wait for His exaltation until the Father 
willed it. All the mighty works which Jesus did were per- 
formed for the glory of God, or for the benefit of suffering hu- 
manity. In giving illustrations of His power, He did it not 
for personal advantage or to display pre-eminence over other 
men. Though rich in possibility, though endowed with the 
unmeasured spirit of God, for the sake of others He became 
poor, and by the way of obedience and the cross has obtained 
for Himself a name which is above every name, that every 



THE TKINITY 127 

knee should bow thereto and every tongue confess His head- 
ship as Lord and Christ. 

"Jesus said unto them. Verily, veril}^, I say unto you, Be- 
fore Abraham was, I am'^ (John 8: 58). This passage is 
thought to prove that Jesus is God, and that He existed as 
such prior to the days of Abraham. Since the whole tenor 
of Scripture is against such a conclusion, we dare not say 
that this one passage teaches it. It is necessary to consider 
tliis statement in the light of the whole conversation between 
Jesus and the people, of which this forms a part. The whole 
gospel of John is written for the express purpose of revealing, 
not that Jesus is God, but that He is the Christ, the Son of 
God, through whom alone comes eternal life. "These are 
written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the 
Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through 
His name'^ (John 20: 31). In another place we read: "I 
am the Light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not 
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life'^ (John 8 : 
12). This aroused the Pharisees to dispute His claim. He 
then referred to His Sonship to God, and the divinity of His 
mission. They replied by boasting of their great ancestor 
Abraham, and Jesus accused them of doing what Abraham 
would not have done. They sought to kill Him, a Man sent 
from God; this would not Abraham do. He spoke again of 
his mission as the Life-giver : "If a man keep My saying, he 
shall never see death" (vs. 51). Again they spoke of Abra- 
ham: "Abraham is dead, and the prophets, and Thou say- 
est, If a man keep My saying, he shall never taste of death. 
Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? 
and the prophets are dead: whom makest Thou Thyself?" 
(vss. 52, 53). In His answer Jesus said: "Your father 
Abraham rejoiced to see My day: and he saw it, and was 
glad. Then said the Jews unto Him, Thou art not yet fifty 
years old, and hast Thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto 



128 THE ATONEMENT 

them, Verily, verily, 1 say unto you. Before Abraham was^ 
I am^^ (vss, 55-58). He referred to His appointment as the 
Messiah, the Redeemer, the Prince of Life, from the founda- 
tion of the world — appointed in the faithful purposes of 
Him who knows all things from the beginning, and who 
calleth things which be not yet as though they were, because 
of- the certainty of their accomplishment. Abraham was a 
great man, who by faith beheld Christ's day (not only the 
day of His humiliation, but the day of His great glory) and 
was glad. But long before Abraham was born, Jesus was 
appointed by God as the Messiah. An almost parallel case 
is found in Cyrus, who was named of God through the 
prophet Isaiah a long time before His birth, as the restorer 
of the holy city and the one who should release captive Israel. 
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with 
God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Trinitarians 
contend that this passage teaches the eternity of the personal 
existence of Jesus, and His Godhead; that He was the Cre- 
ator of the universe; that He tabernacled in flesh for the 
benefit of the human race that men might have life; and 
that, while on earth, He was a God-Man. It is a passage 
which has been understood (or misunderstood, rather) in a 
great many ways, but which must be in accord with the rest 
of the inspired writings. It cannot, therefore, teach what 
is elsewhere denied. It cannot teach that Jesus has eternally 
existed as the Second Person of a Triune Godhead. Some 
have considered that the purpose, the wisdom, the expressed 
word or declaration of God, is here referred to as the Word 
(Logos), and such an interpretation is in harmony with the 
language of John in his first epistle. He speaks of God as 
Light and Love: "God is Light, and in Him is no darkness 
at all" (I John 1:5); "God is Love'' (I John 4:8). The 
Logos to which he refers in his gospel is an attribute so in- 
separable from God that it may be called God, an attribute 



GOD IN CHEIST 129 

which was manifested in the beneficent creation of this world, 
and was also expressed in Jesus of Nazareth, who is the com- 
pletion of Jehovah's purposes and the embodiment of all His 
holy attributes. The following extract gives a paraphrase 
of the first of John that harmonizes with what is revealed 
throughout the divine records and gives an intelligent un- 
derstanding of this particular text: 

There is an eternal Eeason, a sovereign Wisdom, which hath existed 
from all ages; this Wisdom hath ever been inseparable from God; 
or to speak properly, it is God Himself. In the beginning of the 
world it was then with God, who never does anything without con- 
sulting it. And He employed it in the creation of the universe. In 
effect, there is no creature in which one does not see some traces of 
this Wisdom shine; so that without it things would never have 
attained that point of beauty which we admire. Wisdom is the source 
of life and of true happiness; and not merely this, it serves, more- 
over, as a light to conduct us to them. This light especially hath 
shone forth in our days ; but, how capable soever it were of dispelling 
the shades of ignorance, blind mortals chose rather to wander in 
error than follow the counsels of pure and unclouded reason. And 
if the divine Wisdom hath appeared in the works of creation, one 
may say that it hath no less displayed its splendor under the gospel. 
It hath rendered itself sensible and palpable in Jesus Christ; by His 
means it hath never ceased to do good to men. We have been wit- 
nesses of the miracles which were effected by this Wisdom, and of 
the glory with which Jesus Christ was invested — a glory much greater 
than what appeared in Moses and the prophets, such as was proper 
to be the glory of the only-begotten Son of God. 

"For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, 
the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one'^ (I 
John 5:7). This passage can no longer be looked upon as 
one of the principal supports of the doctrine of the Trinity. 
It has long been known to be an interpolation, and it is 
omitted from the Eevised Version; yet some people still con- 
tinue to quote it in support of the Trinitarian idea. 

It has been contended that in the threefold benediction 
which Jehovah commanded to be pronounced upon the Israel- 



130 THE ATONEMENT 

ites, a reference is made to the Trinity of Persons in the 
Godhead: "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord 
make His face shine npon thee, and be gracious unto thee; 
the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee 
peace'^ (Numb. 6: 24-26). It must be easily seen that the 
citation of this as evidence of the Trinity is altogether beside 
the mark. The same Being is three times spoken of; the 
same name is thrice used; but no reference is made to three 
distinct persons, nor would its form suggest the idea of a 
Triune Being to an unbiased mind. 

A parallel passage is the ascription of the seraphim in 
Isaiah 6:3: "Holy, holy, hol}^, is the Lord of hosts : the 
whole earth is full of His glory.'^ This is no plain testi- 
mony to the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, but an em- 
phatic form of expression. It no more indicates three Per- 
sons than the words of Jeremiah: "Oh earth, earth, earth, 
hear the word of the Lord,'^ imply three earths. 

If any other passages be adduced in support of the com- 
mon doctrine of the Trinity, or of the personal pre-existence 
of Jesus of Nazareth, they may be found on examination not 
to be out of harmony with the uniform testimony of the 
divine Book, that God is one, that Jesus Christ is His Son, 
and that the Holy Spirit is the medium whereby Jehovah 
fills immensity and performs His will. 



CHAPTEK IX. GOD IN CHRIST 

For God so loved the world, that Re gave His only- 
begotten Son, that whosoever helieveth in Him should not 
perish, hut have everlasting life. For God sent not His 
Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world 
through Him might be saved. — John 3: 16, 17. 

Having in the previous chapters examined the ground- 
work on which the doctrine of the Atonement rests^ and hav- 
ing found that false theories have been advanced through 
mistakes as to the fundamental doctrines of the Word of 
God, we have now to consider in detail the true doctrine of 
the Atonement as developed in the Scriptures. 

The first fact to be noticed is that the Atonement is not 
the work of Jesus Christ alone, but the joint work of God 
and Christ. Far from the Almighty Creator of heaven and 
earth being so incensed against the noblest effort of His cre- 
ative power in this mundane system that on account of the 
first transgression He demanded "rigid satisfaction" and the 
death of one co-equal with Himself, whose love even surpassed 
His own if such an idea Avere true, the Scriptures reveal the 
glorious truth that when man sinned against his Creator and 
broke His law, the Creator Himself devised a scheme of re- 
demption in harmony with His own character and wisdom — 
a scheme based upon mercy, compassion, and love. 

Behold the character of God as revealed in the declarations 
of the Psalmist, the prophets, and the apostles. When the 
Lord proclaimed His name on. Mount Sinai before the eyes 
of Moses, He said : 



132 THE ATONEMENT 

The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and 
abundant in goodness and truth (Ex. 34: 6). 

Nehemiah addressed the Almighty in the following words: 

Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to 
anger, and of great kindness (Neh. 9: 17). 

Many times is the same truth expressed in the Psalms : 

But Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, 
longsuffering and plenteous in mercy and truth (Psalm 86: 15). 

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous 
in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger 
for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded 
us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the 
earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as 
the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions 
from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth 
them that fear Him (Psalm 103: 13). 

In the New Testament the same glorious truth shines forth, 
and the Lord Jesus and His apostles sing of the love of God; 
and the whole may be summed up in the words of the be- 
loved disciple : '^God is Love'' (I John 4 : 8, 16) . 

God's love for the world was manifested in giving a prom- 
ise of a Redeemer to those who had brought death upon the 
race then unborn; and in the words uttered to the serpent 
the divine purpose is expressed that though sin should for 
a time triumph it should be ultimately destroyed : 

I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy 
seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his 
heel (Gen. 3: 15). 

The Almighty, as before stated, purposed to make manifest 
His sovereign power and majesty in man, through obedience; 
and when Adam transgressed, the Almighty's purpose was 
not frustrated, but it was to be worked out through another 
channel ; and at the very time when sin entered into the world, 
and death by sin, mention was made of another means that 



GOD IN CHEIST 133 

had been iDrovided for redeeming fallen man and making 
manifest God's gloij. 

In that beautiful and pathetic 53d of Isaiah, the gospel of 
Christ's redemptive work is set forth. The inspired prophet 
sang of the sorrows, the sufferings, and the future glory of 
Christ Jesus: 

Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we 
did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He 
was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniqui- 
ties: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His 

stripes we are healed Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise 

Him; He hath put Him to grief; when Thou shalt make His soul an 
offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, 
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see 
of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied; by His knowledge 
shall My righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their 
iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, 
and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath 
poured out His soul unto death; and He was numbered with the 
transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession 
for the transgressors (Isa. 53: 4, 5, 10-12). 

When John the Baptist saw Jesus approach the place where 
He was baptizing, he exclaimed: "Behold, the Lamb of 
God, which taketh away the sin of the world," thereby testify- 
ing that the mission of Jesus had its origin in God's merci- 
ful provision for man's deepest needs and that the death 
of Jesus was the outcome of God's love. 

In the words of Jesus, too, abundant expression is found 
of the fact that God was working through Him for man's 
redemption. When justifying Himself after the cure of the 
lame man at the pool of Bethesda, He said : 

I can of Mine own self do nothing: as I hear I judge: and My 
judgment is just; because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of 

tJie Father which hath sent Me For the works which the 

Father hath given Me to finish, the same works that I do, bear 
witness of Me, that the Father hath sent Me (John 5: 30, 36). 



134 THE ATONEMENT 

To the disciples He said after the conversation with the 
Samaritan at the well : 

My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finisli His 
worTc (John 4: 34). 

At the feast of tabernacles He taught in the temple, and the 
Jews questioned among themselves who He was; He said to 
them : 

My doctrine is not Mine^ but His that sent Me. If any man will 
do His will, He shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, 
or whether I speak of Myself (John 7: 16, 17). 

Again He said to them : 

Ye both know Me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come 
of Myself, but He that sent Me is true whom ye know not. But 
I know Him; for I am from Him and He hath sent Me (John 7: 
28, 29). 

And in this connection we may remember His gracious words : 

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn 
the world; but that the world through Him might be saved (John 
3: 16, 17). 

When Mar}^ was informed by Gabriel that she should be 
the mother of Jesus, she sang a song of praise to God for His 
blessing upon her, and His blessings to be accomplished upon 
her people, and said: 

My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in 
God my Savior (Luke 1: 46, 47). 

When John, the herald of Jesus was born, his father Zechariah 
recognized the mission of Jesus and the mission of John, and 



Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and 
redeemed His people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for 
us in the house of His servant David; as He spake by the mouth of 



GOD IN CHEIST 135 

His holy prophets, which have been since the world began (Luke 
1: 68-70). 

To the aged Simeon it had been revealed that He should not 
see death till he had seen the Lord's Christ, and when he 
beheld Him in the temple he 

took Him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said. Lord, now 
lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Tliy word, 
for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, wMcli Thou hast prepared 
before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the 
glory of Thy people Israel (Luke 2: 28-32). 

All three recognized and gave expression to the fact that the 
mission of Jesus was from God, that God in His abundant 
merc}^ had provided salvation, and made it possible for Jews 
and Gentiles to be partakers thereof through Christ Jesus. 

The apostolic witness is equally plain that God was work- 
ing through Christ for man's salvation. John says : 

In this was manifested the love of God toivard us, because that 
God sent His only-hegotten Son into the world that we might live 
through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He 
loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 
.... We love Him, because He first loved us (I John 4: 9, 10, 19). 

Paul says: 

For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell; and, 
having made peace through the blood of the cross, hy Him to recon- 
cile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things 
in earth, or things in heaven (Col, 1 : 19, 20). 

Again he says : 

All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself hy Jesus 
Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, 
that God was in Christ, reconciling the luorld unto Himself, not 
imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us 
the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for 
Christ, as though God did beseech you by us ; we pray you in Christ 's 
stead, be ye reconciled to God (II Cor. 5 : 18-20). 

Peter speaks of Jesus M^ho 



136 THE ATONEMENT 

was foreordained before the foundation of tbe world, but was mani- 
fest in these last times for you, who by Him do believe in God, that 
raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory (I Peter 1: 
20, 21). 

These testimonies will abundantly prove the fact that the 
Atonement was not alone the work of Christ, undertaken to 
avert God's anger, which had been roused by man's sin, but 
that it was the work of God in Christ. One other point must 
be mentioned in this connection. Both God and Christ are 
frequently spoken of as "Savior" in the epistles. In the short 
epistle to Titus,, for example, the following instances occur : 

According to the commandment of God our Savior (1: 3); 

Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus 
Christ our Savior (1: 4); 

That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior (2: 10) ; 

Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the 
great God and our Savior Jesus Christ (2: 13, E. V. margin); 

But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man 
appeared (3: 4) ; 

Which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior 
(3: 6). 

These references must be understood on the ground above 
stated, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
Himself. Man having disobeyed the divine command and 
brought death and its attendant evils on the whole human 
race to afterwards descend from him, God, in His abounding 
grace, devised a scheme whereby His glory might at last be 
fully manifested, a fallen race redeemed, and mortals raised 
to an equality of being with the angels — partakers of the 
divine nature. He made known this purpose in a dim proph- 
ecy to those who by sinning brought death into the world; 
in later times He unfolded His plan through His holy 
prophets; and when the fulness of time had come He sent 
forth His only-begotten Son to take away the world^s sin, 
and light up death's dark vale with the light of life unending. 



CHAPTER X. OBEDIEN^CE AND SACRIFICE 

As dy one maii^s disohedience many were made sinners, so 
by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous. — 
Bom. 5: 19. 

It was the one supreme aim of the Lord Jesus to glorify 
God by fulfilling His will. He said : "My meat is to do the 
will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work" (John 4: 
34). He ever had this before Him as the guiding principle 
of His life, seeing in every circumstance an opportunity for 
glorifying His Father; and when, on the eve of His cruci- 
fixion for the sins of men, the eve of His greatest trial and 
greatest victor}', all natural impulses would have urged Him 
to withdraw from perfecting His mission, this one desire was 
uppermost and found expression in the oft-quoted words: 
*-'Thy will be done/' 

The second great principle to be noticed in connection with 
the Atonement is that redemption has been effected through 
obedience. As already pointed out, God's glory and sovereign 
majesty were to be manifested in man through obedience ; and 
since Adam transgressed the divine command, that purpose 
was to be accomplished through Christ Jesus. Adam and 
Christ are spoken of by Paul, in I Cor. 15: 45, as two 
Adams : "The first man Adam was made a living soul ; the 
last Adam was made a quickening Spirit.'' In relation to 
life, death, and immortality they stand as two heads of the 
human race — the one through whom came sin and death, and 
the other through whom came righteousness and life eternal. 
The same apostle also says: "As in Adam all die, even so 



138 THE ATONEMENT 

in Christ shall all be made alive" (I Cor. 15: 22), again 
showing the relation of Adam and Christ as two heads of the 
race. It is to be observed, however, that those who are in 
Adam are not therefore in Christ. By birth all are related to 
Adam, and through him to death; but it remains to be con- 
sidered in a later chapter how relationship with Christ and 
life is established and maintained. It is sufficient now to 
notice the position which these two Adams occupy as heads, 
the one in transgression, and the other in obedience. The 
first Adam transgressed, and through his sin came death; 
right to eat of the tree of life which was in the midst of the 
garden or Paradise of Eden was taken away. By the obedi- 
ence of the second Adam life and immortality have been 
brought to light; the right to partake of the tree of life has 
been restored — the tree of life which shall be in the Paradise 
of God's new creation. 

It is through obedience that redemption has been obtained ; 
but because it is often said by the apostles that we have been 
redeemed by the blood of Christ, the obedience which made 
that blood acceptable is to a great extent lost sight of, and the 
sacrificial aspect of the death of Christ is brought to the front. 
It is true that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God to take away 
the sin of the world; it is true that in Him we have redemp- 
tion through His blood, the forgiveness of sins ; it is true that 
we have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as 
of a Lamb without blemish and without spot; but it is also 
true that the great principle which underlay that sacrifice and 
which pre-eminently was well-pleasing to God was obedience. 
Because the greatest act of Christ's obedience was His death; 
because the pre-eminent manifestation of His love was in 
yielding His life a ransom for many; because that is the 
culminating point in a whole life of obedience ; therefore most 
mention is made of that and it is said that by the death of 
Christ, or by the blood of Christ, we are purchased to God. 



OBEDIENCE AND SACBIFICE 139 

It is not for us to try and fathom all the depths of the 
Almighty's wisdom, and seek to know why He ordained that 
the death of Jesus on the cross should be essential to man's 
redemption. Such is a fact, and it is with the fact, not the 
philosophy of it, that Ave are more particularly concerned. 
It is evident, from Philip. 2 : 8, that the death of Jesus 
on the cross was essential to an all-availing obedience, and 
that, had the Lord Jesus not yielded to His Father's will in 
this one respect, none of the human race would have been 
released from death by Him: "And being found in fashion 
as a man. He humbled himself, and became ohedient unto 
death, even the death of the cross/' "Without shedding of 
blood there is no remission of sins,'^ said the apostle who 
wrote to the Hebrews (9: 22), when speaking of the law and 
its ordinances which typified the sacrifice of Christ. 

The following quotations will show that the death of 
Jesus, as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world, 
not a natural death, but a death specially as a sacrifice or 
offering for sin, was fore-ordained of God, and revealed 
through the prophets: 

For this cause came I unto this hour (John 12: 27). 

Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowl- 
edge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and 
slain (Acts 2: 23). 

But those things, which God before had showed by the mouth of 
all His prophets, that Christ should suffer. He hath so fulfilled 
(Acts 3: 18). 

For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they 
knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read 
every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him 
(Acts 13: 27). 

Sacrifice is only well-pleasing to God when it is the out- 
come of an upright heart. The sacrifices of the wicked are 
an abomination in His sight. Obedience to His commands 
has always been what He has required before all else, and He 



140 THE ATONEMENT 

has many times expressed this through His servants the 
prophets. When Saul was commanded to slay the Amalekites 
and save none alive, whether man or beast, and when he 
brought back some of the best of the cattle for the purpose 
of offering them to God, the Lord was displeased with him, 
and rejected him from being king because of his disobedi- 
ence. Samuel said to him : 

Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, 
as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than 
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as 
the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. 
Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also 
rejected thee from being king (I Sam. 15 : 22, 23). 

The same thing is often expressed in later writings. For ex- 
ample : 

To do judgment and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than 
sacrifice (Prov. 31: 3); 

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God 
more than burnt offerings (Hos. 6: 6); 

"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before 
the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with 
calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of 
rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my 
firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of 
my soul? He hath showed thee, man, what is good; and what 
doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, 
and to walk humbly with thy God? (Mic. 6: 6-8). 

Oftentimes were the prophets commissioned to rebuke the 
nation for having gone astray from the paths of obedience, 
and bringing their offerings and sacrifices as a mere formal- 
ism, without any recognition of their own iniquity and with- 
out any desire to show themselves well-pleasing to God. 
Tsaiah^s burden was thus : 

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith 
the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of 



OBEDIENCE AND SACEIFICE 141 

fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, 
or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before Me, who hath 
required this at your hand, to tread My courts? Bring no more vain 
oblations J incense is an abomination unto Me; the new moons and 
sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with ; it is 
iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your 
appointed feasts My soul hateth: they are a trouble unto Me; I am 
weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will 
hide Mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will 
not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; 
put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do 
evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge 
the fatherless, plead for the widow (Isa. 1: 11-17). 

Seeing that this has always been God^s will, that obedience 
must sanctify everything, can we think that the sacrifice of 
Christ was well-pleasing in the sight of God merely as a 
sacrifice? Nay, but as the greatest proof of obedience, and 
of love to God and man. This is expressly declared by the 
apostles. In the 10th chapter of the letter to the Hebrews, 
Psalm 40 : 6-8 is quoted as being prophetic of Jesus : 

Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou 
prepared Me; in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast had 
no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it 
is written of Me), to do Thy will, O God (Heb. 10: 5-7). 

Similar words are used in Psalm 51 : 16-19 : 

For Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou 
delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken 
spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. 
Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion: build Thou the walls of 
Jerusalem. Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of right- 
eousness, with burnt offerings and whole burnt offering: then shall 
they offer bullocks upon Thine altar. 

The argument of the Sth chapter of the letter to the Eo- 
mans is that as Adam sinned and brought death into the 
world, so life has been made possible through the righteous- 
ness or obedience of Jesus. Having stated that ^Ve also joy 
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have 



142 THE ATONEMENT 

now received tlie Atonement" (vs. 11), the apostle elaborates 
more fully the latter part of his statement, and contrasts the 
work of the two Adams : 

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by 
sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 
(for until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when 
there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, 
even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's 
transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to come. But not 
as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense 
of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by 
grace, which is by one Man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. 
And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judg- 
ment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many 
offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense death 
reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace 
and of the gift of righteousness shall reign by One, Jesus Christ). 
Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to 
condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift 
came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's 
disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One 
shall many be made righteous. Moreover the Jaw entered that the 
offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much 
more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might 
grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ 
our Lord (vs. 12-21). 

In Heb. 5 : 8, 9, it is written : 

Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things 
which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the Author 
of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him; 

and in Heb. 2 : 10 : 

For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all 
things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of 
their salvation perfect through sufferings. 

It is clear from this that perfection in God's sight is an im- 
plicit obedience to His will, and that the obedience of Christ 



OBEDIENCE AND SACEIFICE 143 

manifested throughout his life and pre-eminently in His 
death on the cross was the means of redemption. 

The headship of Jesus has been manifested through suf- 
fering and trial. What none other before or since has been 
able to do. He has done. He has kept God's will in its 
every detail. He has been "tempted (or tried) in all points 
like as we are, yet without sin'' (Heb. 4: 15). Neither the 
lust of the flesh, nor tlie lust of the eyes, nor the pride of 
life, could avail to cause Him to wander from the path of 
rectitude. In all times of trial He was victorious. "Thy 
will be done" was indelibly upon His heart as the guiding 
principle of His life, and its performance was His constant 
business and supreme delight. He was "holy, harmless, un- 
defiled, and separate from sinners," and because of His head- 
ship in suft'ering, in trial, and in victory He has been con- 
stituted the Head in glory also. He has become the Author 
of eternal life to all who obey Him, and the Captain of their 
salvation. He has been exalted to be a Prince and a Savior, 
and is the Xew and Living Way. His is the only N'ame given 
under heaven among men, whereby we may be saved; for 
there is no salvation in any other. He is the Way, the Truth, 
and the Life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by Him. 
This headship of Jesus is beautifully expressed by Paul in 
that letter to the Philippians from which we have already 
quoted : 

And being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself, and 
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore 
God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is 
above every name: that at the Name of Jesus every knee should 
bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the 
earth ; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
to the glory of God the Father (Philip. 2: 8-11). 



CHAPTER XI. REDEMPTION 

But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made 
unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and 
redemption. — I Cor. 1: 30. 

Having seen that the Atonement was the work of God in 
Christ, and that what was pre-eminently effectual in accom- 
plishing the Atonement was the obedience of Jesus, it remains 
to be seen what has been effected thereby. Briefly summed 
up it is this : Jesus has, by the Atonement, obtained redemp- 
tion for Himself and for others. But some will say: "Did 
Jesus need redemption? Did He who was holy, harmless, 
undefiled, and separate from sinners need redemption?" The 
Scripture answers "Yes." "Redemption" is literally "a buy- 
ing back." The word comes from the Latin re — again, and 
eniptum — buying; and we must bear in mind, in considering 
the redemption spoken of in the Scriptures, that it is a bu}^- 
ing back of individuals. 

It is true that Jesus was a Lamb without blemish and 
without spot, obedient in all things, and without sin — had 
He sinned, it would not have been possible for Him to re- 
deem others. It was not redemption from the results of per- 
sonal sin that Jesus needed. It will be remembered that in 
an earlier chapter it was shown that Jesus was not the Sec- 
ond Person of a co-eternally-existent Trinity, who became in- 
carnate, or tabernacled as God in the flesh of man, and so 
united in His own nature a perfect Godhead and a perfect 
Manhood, with power to appear as either a God or a Man as 
occasion required; but that He was a Man raised up from 



1 



BEDEMPTION 146 

the tribe of Judali, born of the virgin Mary, and so sharing 
the physical nature of those whom He was about to redeem. 
A few apostolic references on this point will set it beyond 
the shadow of a doubt. To the Galatians Paul wrote : 

But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth His Son, 
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were 
under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons (Gal. 
4: 4, 5). 

To the Eomans he wrote : 

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the 
flesh, God sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for 
sin (margin, by a sacrifice for sin), condemned sin in the flesh 
(Kom. 8: 3). 

The apostle who wrote to the Hebrews bears testimony to 
the same effect: 

Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, He also 
Himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death 
He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, 
the devil; and might deliver all them who through fear of death 
were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily not of angels 
doth He takfe hold, but He taketh hold of the seed of Abraham. 
Wherefore it behooved Him in all things to be made like unto His 
brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in 
things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the 
people (Hebrews 2: 14-17, E. V.). 

John says : 

And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1: 14). 
In the letter to the Philippians Paul wrote: 

But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form 
of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found 
in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto 
death, even the death of the cross (Philip. 2: 7, 8). 

To the Eomans he wrote concerning Jesus that He 

was made of the seed of David according to the flesh (Eom. 1: 3). 



146 THE ATONEMENT 

From these citations it will be evident that Jesus shared 
the nature of those He came to redeem. Physically He was 
like them; mentally and morally He was far above them. 
Being descended from Adam, being of our physical nature, 
being of flesh and blood, He was related to the law of death 
which is through Adam. We know, however, that He was 
cut ofl in the prime of life, and that He consequently did not 
die a natural death as most persons do in the ordinary course 
of nature. Still He was mortal, or He could not have died 
either a natural or an unnatural death. Though having no 
actual guilt, He partook of a mortal nature of flesh and 
blood. Paul said: "Death reigned from Adam to Moses, 
even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of 
Adam's transgression." The law caused sin to "become ex- 
ceeding sinful" (Eom. 7: 13), and so made it manifest that 
those who died under the law were justly in bondage to 
death. ISTow Jesus, though sharing the nature of Adam, and 
being born under the Mosaic law, honored that law, fulfilled 
it, kept all its enactments in perfect holiness; therefore it 
could not possibly have any claim upon Him, and, when He 
died under the law of flesh-and-blood nature, the law through 
Moses had no power to hold Him in death, as others. He 
took away the curse of the law, being made a curse by hang- 
ing on a tree; He nailed it to the cross, and rose from the 
dead, having vanquished all its powers. 

We have two instances of men who have not died, Enoch 
and Elijah, whom it pleased God to remove that they should 
not see death (and who shall say Him nay if He see fit to 
temporarily set aside an ordinance of His own appoint- 
ment?); but their exception does not deny the rule that 
death reigns through Adam. In dying, Christ yielded to the 
law of death all that it could claim; but when He was dead 
it was needful that He should be redeemed from death. It 
was His perfect obedience which was effectual in causing Him 



EEDEMPTION 147 

to be brought back from the grave's temporary dominion; 
it was impossible that He should be holden of the cords of 
deaths seeing that He had lived a perfectly holy life and 
had committed no sin. 

God could not suffer His Holy One to see corruption^ as 
the Psalmist had sung prophetically a long while before. 
Hence, when all that the law of death could claim had been 
granted, God raised Him from the dead, and has given unto 
Him the keys of both death and the grave, and He will in 
due time utilize them for raising again all who have lived 
and died in faith in Him. The resurrection of Jesus is one 
of the most marvelously attested facts in the world's his- 
tory. It has civilized mankind and carried with it, wher- 
ever it has gone, a holy and sanctifying influence; and where 
its power has been most fully felt, there have been the great- 
est blessings. It is the influence of the name of Christ that 
has turned men from mere barbarism to the gentler hu- 
manity which is characteristic of the most enlightened and 
Christian communities; though it is to be observed that as 
yet the influence of this glorious fact is but partially felt 
even in so-called Christian lands; but, in a day not far dis- 
tant, Christianity shall shed its most potent influence upon 
the wliole wide world, and all creation shall receive of its 
divine blessings. The resurrection of Jesus is the most glori- 
ous fact that shines on history's pages. It casts its beams 
as far back as Eden, and covers the dark deed which brought 
death into the world; and it gleams forward till the time 
when God shall be revealed in every living form. The sinner 
and the infidel may scoff and raise their feeble objections, 
but they fall as fast as they are raised; and when the sceptic 
and the sinner have sunk into oblivion, and the place which 
knew them shall know them no more forever, they who have 
recognized the glorious fact that Christ has risen from the 
dead, and have permitted it to be a sanctifying power in 



148 THE ATONEMENT 

their lives, shall enjoy the unspeakable blessings which have 
been made possible thereby. 

The apostolic estimate of tlie resurrection of Jesus was 
not a lowly one. Paul speaks of Jesus our Lord, "who was 
delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our jus- 
tification" (Eom. 4: 25); and of "Christ that died, yea 
rather, that is risen again" (Eom. 8: 34). Though the dis- 
ciples were astonished at the death of Christ whom they 
trusted in, and were likely to lose faith on that account, Peter 
afterward said God "liath begotten us again unto a lively 
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (I 
Peter 1:3). 

If more proof be needed that the obedience of Jesus was 
effectual unto His own redemption from death, it is to be 
found in Hebrews 5 : 7, where the apostle says : 

Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers 
and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was 
able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared. 

He was not prevented from dying, but He was saved, re- 
deemed, brought back, from death; He was raised again by 
God who heard His prayer. These supplications are pro- 
phetically expressed in the 69th Psalm, which is undoubtedly 
Messianic : 

But as for Me, My prayer is unto Thee, O Lord, in an acceptable 
time: O God, in the multitude of Thy mercy hear Me, in the truth 
of Thy salvation. Deliver Me out of the mire, and let Me not sink; 
let Me be delivered from them that hate Me, and out of the deep 

waters Let not the pit shut her mouth upon me (Psalm 69 : 

13-15). 

In the 9th chapter of Hebrews, vss. 11 and 12, it is written: 
But Christ, being come an High Priest of good things to come, by 
a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is 
to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, 
but by His own blood He entered in once into the Holy Place, liaving 
obtained eternal redemption. 



EEDEMPTION 149 

The words ^^for us" follow in the Authorized Version, but 
have been supplied b}- the translators; in the Eevised Ver- 
sion the}^ are omitted. The word translated "having ob- 
tained" signifies a reflection of the action on the subject, and 
the passage should read: "Having obtained for Himself 
eternal redemption." 

A parallel passage, undoubtedly referring to Jesus, and 
suggesting His entry into Jerusalem, is found in Zechariah^s 
prophecy : 

Kejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusa- 
lem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee; He is just and having 
salvation; lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of 
an ass (Zech. 9: 9). 

In the margin an alternative rendering is given: "Saving 
Himself." Although these two testimonies prove that Christ 
obtained redemption for Himself, it is also true that He has 
made redemption possible for us. His redemption was not 
from guilt, but from nature; our redemption is necessary 
both from the nature which We possess as a result of Adam's 
transgression, and from our own sins. This we may have 
through faith in Christ Jesus. Peter says : 

Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, 
that He might bring us to God (I Peter 3: 18). 

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible 
things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by 
tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, 
as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot (I Peter 1: 18, 19). 

Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example; that ye should 
follow His steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in His 
mouth; who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He 
suffered. He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that 
judgeth righteously; who His own self bare our sins in His own 
body on (margin, to) the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should 
live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed (I Peter 
2: 21-24). • 



150 THE ATONEMENT 

Paul says: 

In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness 
of sins (Ephes. 1: 7; Colos. 1: 14). 

Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is 
in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation 
through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the 
remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God 
(Eom. 3: 24, 25). 

John says : • 

The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin 
(I John 1:7). 

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that 
God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live 
through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He 
loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins 
(I John 4: 9, 10). 

In Patmos, this same apostle had a vision of the elders around 
the Lamb^ singing a new song: 

Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: 
for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood, 
men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and madest 
them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests (Eev. 5: 9, 19, R. V.). 

He ascribed praise to Jesus by saying : 

Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own 
blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; 
to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever (Eev. 1: 5, 6). 

He also had a vision of the redeemed concerning whom one 
of the elders said: 

These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have 
washed their robes, and made them Avhite in the blood of the Lamb 
(Rev. 7: 14). 

The question arises: "How is Christ's Atonement ef- 
fectual to the redemption of the race?" In other words, 
did Christ die as our substitute? Do such expressions as 



EEDEMPTION 151 

"Christ died for the ungodly^' (Eom. 5: 6), and "Christ 
died for us" (Eom. 5:8) teach that Christ died as a sub- 
stitute for us? No. If Christ died as our substitute, then 
are we free; those whom He substituted should no longer 
be under any curse. Seeing that the object of Christ's Atone- 
ment as it affects us is to redeem us from death (and, in the 
case of the Israelites, from the curse of the law as well), if 
He has satisfied all the claims of the law of death both on 
Himself and on us, then are we free, and ought not to die; 
but we find that those who trust in God and have hope of 
eternal life through Christ, are not free from death, but 'die 
as do others. Therefore Christ did not die instead of us, 
but on our behalf, that we might live through Him, He 
never led any of His followers to understand that they would 
never die ; but He did say : "I am the Kesurrection, and the 
Life; he that believeth on Me, though He die, yet shall he 
live" (John 11: 25, E. V.). And when we renounce the 
doctrine of substitution, and look upon Christ as our repre- 
sentative, the work of the Atonement as it affects us be- 
comes clear. Christ died and was raised again by God on 
account of the obedience which He manifested throughout 
Sis life, and in His death as the Lamb of God. Those who 
trust in God through Christ die, but through Him they have 
forgiveness of sins, and redemption; the Father has promised 
to look upon them through Christ, and to take His righteous- 
ness as a covering for their sins, and has given Him power to 
call them from death even as He was raised from the dead. 
He has been constituted a Prince and a Savior, and the Cap- 
tain of many sons who shall be brought to glory. 

Peter said: "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the 
Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (I Peter 
3: 18)— that is, "on account of," not "instead of." "What 
the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, 
God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. 



152 THE ATONEMENT 

and as an offering for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Eom. 
8 : 3, E. V. ) . Grod has chosen, in His wisdom, to forgive sin 
only over the blood of an offering, and Jesus is the offering 
over whose blood the sins of all may be forgiven. In the ap- 
pointment of Jesus to be a sin-offering, the sins of those re- 
deemed were transferred, as it were, to Him; and so the 
prophet could say : "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity 
of us all," or as the marginal rendering is : "hath made the 
iniquity of us all to meet on Him" (Isa. 53: 6). The apos- 
tolic references are similar: 

For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that 
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (II Cor. 5: 2]). 

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a 
curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on 
a tree (Gal. 3: 13). 

Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should 
follow in His steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in His 
mouth: .... who His own self bare our sins in His own body on 
the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; 
by whose stripes ye were healed (I Peter 2: 21, 22, 24). 

He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin 
(I John 3: 5). 

The sins of men have been laid on Him, and by Him borne 
to the tree; and God has forgiven them in Him. Having 
gone down into the grave with the load of the world's sin 
resting upon Him, but being Himself sinless, He was enabled 
to rise victorious over all and to lead captivity captive. He 
vanquished the power of death, whether under the curse of 
Adamic condemnation or the Mosaic law, and can therefore 
redeem or buy back from its dominion all w^ho by faith 
in Him are worthy. As the sins of men have been imputed 
unto Him, so His righteousness shall be imputed unto them ; 
and God will take it as an Atonement or covering for their 
sin, and look on them as perfect and acceptable in Him. 



CHAPTEE XII. HOW MAY REDEMPTION BE PAR- 
TICIPATED IN BY US ? 

F --I 

For the grace of God hath appeared, hringing salvation 
to all men, instructing lis, to the intent that, denying 
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and 
righteously and godly in this present world; loolcing for the 
blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God 
and our Savior Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that 
He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Him- 
self a people for His own possession, zealous of good worTcs. 
—Titus 2: 11-13, E. V. margin. 

The salvation that has been made possible by Jesus is not 
a salvation in which all the human race will be included ; it is 
not a salvation which will be universally enjoyed; second 
probation, the larger hope^ and universal restoration are mod- 
ern theological speculations which are opposed to the teach- 
ing of God's Word. Salvation is only to be consummated 
in the individual experience of those whose faith has made 
them worthy. Naturally all are related to Adam by descent^ 
and through Him to sin and death. All are not by nature 
connected with Christ, and therefore are not related to the 
righteousness and life which are in Him. Relationship with 
Christ is only to be had by compliance with conditions di- 
vinely ordained and revealed. These conditions we will now 
consider, and notice the steps whereby salvation is perfected. 

Salvation is not instantaneous, but progressive. It is not 
consummated in a few moments of religious fervor, but ad- 
vances step by step until it attains perfection in the com- 
plete emancipation of the individual from darkness, sin, and 



154 THE ATONEMENT 

death. Paul recognized this when he exhorted the Eoman 
believers to greater enthusiasm in the Lord's service : "Know- 
ing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep ; 
for now is our salvation nearer than ivlien we believed'' (Eom. 
13: 11). 

The first step toward redemption and salvation is a recog- 
nition of one's position by nature as a descendant of a death- 
doomed parent, and a sharer in the consequences of his trans- 
gression; and in addition to this, a perception of one's indi- 
vidual iniquity. There liveth not one responsible being who 
is free from sin. 

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the 
truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just 
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 
If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His 
word is not in us (I John 1: 8-10). 

As Paul has said, "All have sinned and come short of the 
glory of God." It is needful for all who will be saved to 
recognize, in the first place, this position of sin, and to real- 
ize the greatness of the grace and the love of God and of 
Christ in relation to sinful humanity. 

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; being 
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in 
Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation 
through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the 
remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 
to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness; that He might be 
just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus (Eom. 3: 
23-26). 

When this is perceived, whether it be by reading God's 
Word, or by hearing through God's servants of the grace that 
is in Christ Jesus, then, 

if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt 
believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, 



PARTICIPATION IN REDEMPTION 155 

thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto right- 
eousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation 
(Rom. 10: 9, 10). 

An intelligent perception of God's grace in Christ Jesus will 
lead to a faithful belief of the same; and if this belief be 
from the heart it will find expression in righteousness, or 
right-doing, or obedience; but in the first place the truth as 
it is in Jesus must be understood, and this can only be done 
through the instrumentality of one of God's servants setting 
before an individual the way of life, or the same being ascer- 
tained by perusal of God's Word. 

For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be 
ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: 
for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For 
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How 
then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and 
how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and 
how shall they hear without a preacher? .... So then faith 
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10: 
11-14, 17). 

When the-m-essage has been heard and believed, if the be- 
lief is from the heart, the apostle says that it is unto right- 
eousness: ^^ith the heart man believeth unto righteous- 
ness." A genuine belief will find its expression in works of 
obedience or righteousness. What are these works? The 
first is the act of baptism, to obtain relationship with Christ 
the Eedeemer. By natural descent one is related to Adam 
and to death; but only those who have been baptized into 
Christ after an intelligent belief of the Truth as it centers 
in Him are related to Him and the life that He has made 
possible. Only such are in Christ and will be saved through 
Him. Jesus, in the last commissions given to His disciples 
prior to His ascension, said : 

Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to 



156 THE ATONEMENT 

rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission 
of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning 
at Jerusalem (Luke 24: 46, 47). 

All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye there- 
fore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to 
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you (Matt. 28: 
19, 20). 

In writing to the Galatians, Paul refers to the difference of 
relationship which is brought about by baptism : 

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put 
on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor 
free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ 
Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs 
according to the promise (Gal. 3: 26-29). 

When Peter, on the day of Pentecost, delivered his eloquent 
address to the Jews assembled at the feast, and when the 
Jews were pricked to the heart at the recital of God's purpose 
in Christ Jesus, he further exhorted them: 

Eepent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus 
Christ for the remission of sins (Acts 2: 38). 

It will be seen then that baptism in water into the name of 
Christ is the divinely ordained means for introducing a be- 
liever into relationship with Christ and His redeeming work. 
Baptism is but the first act of obedience, or righteousness, 
which is the result of believing with the heart. It is needful 
after baptism to maintain that justified condition in which 
one then stands, by a whole life of good works. Being cov- 
ered with the garment of the Eedeemer's righteousness, it is 
necessary to keep that garment unspotted; and the whole 
after-life must be an endeavor in this direction. It may be 
seen from the 6th chapter of the letter to the Romans what 
this new condition is: 

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus 
Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with 



PARTICIPATION IN REDEMPTION 157 

Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from 
the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in 
newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the like- 
ness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection : 
knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body 
of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 
For he that is dead is freed from sin (vss. 3-7). 

As Christ died and was buried in the tomb w^hich Joseph of 
Arimathea had he^vn out of the rock^ and as He lay there, a 
sinless One, so all who in faith in Christ are baptized into 
Him are reckoned as also free from sin, and are symbolically 
buried with Him into His death. What a beautifully simple, 
yet expressive, ordinance God has in His wisdom chosen to 
represent one of the most important events that have ever 
trans23ired — the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus as the 
world's Eedeemer ! We cannot be buried as Christ w^as, not 
being physically dead; but by a simple means we can be 
symbolically buried with Him, and as He from a physical 
burial was raised to a newness of life, so those who are dead 
to sin, and are in a figure buried with Him, must rise to a 
newness of moral and spiritual life, no longer serving sin, 
but God; and this wall be an earnest of a new^ nature like to 
Christ's. 

But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with 
Him ; knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more ; 
death hath no more dominion over Him. For the death that He died 
He died unto sin once ; but the life that He liveth He liveth unto God. 
Even so, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto 
God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal 
body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof. Neither present your 
members unto sin as the instruments of unrighteousness; but present 
yourselves unto God as alive from the dead, and your members as 
instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have 
dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 
What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but 
under grace? God forbid. Know ye not that to whom ye present 



158 THE ATONEMENT 

yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants ye are to whom ye 
obey; v^^hether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 
But thanks be to God, that whereas ye were servants of sin, ye 
became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto 
ye were delivered; and being made free from sin, ye became the 

servants of righteousness For when ye were servants of sin 

ye were free in regard of righteousness. "What fruit then had ye at 
that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the 
end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin, 
and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification 
and the end eternal life (vss. 8-18, 20--22, E. V.). 

The apostles used many figures to represent this new life 
of righteousness after baptism, this lifelong consecrating of 
one's self to God. In the quotation just made it is likened 
to serving a new master, having formerly been a servant of 
sin, the one baptized now becomes a servant of God, and it 
becomes an imperative duty to renounce the old mastership 
entirely and serve the new with whole-hearted sincerity. 
Another figure is that of putting off the old man, and put- 
ting on the new; putting off all those things which belong 
to sin, and putting on those which belong to righteousness. 
Having spoken of some who were alienated from the life of 
God through ignorance and wicked works, Paul says: 

But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard 
Him, and have been taught by Him, as the Truth is in Jesus; that 
ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which 
is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the 
spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after 
God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph. 4: 20-24). 

Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man 
with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in 
knowledge after the image of Him that created him (Col. 3: 9, 10). 

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (Philip. 
2: 5). 

He addressed the Galatian believers as 

My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ 
be formed in you (Gal. 4: 19). 



PARTICIPATION IN REDEMPTION 159 

This is the object of the after-life, that Christ may be 
formed in us, that we may become like Him. It is a lifelong 
work. It is a conflict, a warfare between the law of sin and 
the law of the spirit, each seeking to obtain the mastery; 
and it is npon the result of this conflict that it will depend 
whether the process of salvation shall be consummated in 
perfect redemption. The conflict is described by Paul in the 
7th chapter of his letter to the Eomans : 

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold 
under sin. For that which I do I allow not; for what I would, that 
I do not; but what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I 
would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is 
no more I that do it, but sin that dweUeth in me. For I know that 
in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing; for to will is 
present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. 
For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, 
that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do 
it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I 
would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law 
of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, 
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity 
to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that 
I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank 
God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself 
serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. (Rom. 
7: 14-25). 

It must be remembered that those who have been baptized 
are not redeemed from the sinful tendencies and mortality 
inherent to their nature, but are justified from their old 
sins through baptism, and are on probation for ultimate 
> salvation. They will therefore have a desire to fulfil God's 
requirements in every respect, but through the weakness of 
the flesh will frequently err. "The spirit indeed is willing, 
but the flesh is weak.'' There are, therefore, two kinds of 
sins — sins of weakness, and sins of presumption: there is a 
sin unto death, and there is a sin not unto death. The 



162 THE ATONEMENT 

and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first 
(I Thess. 4; 15, 16). 

And when the dead have risen, they shall, with those who 
have remained alive, together meet their Lord to receive the 
consummation of their desire, even their complete redemp- 
tion. The resurrection of the just is pledged in the resurrec- 
tion of Christ. No human theories can explain away the 
glorious fact that He is risen; no other solution of the 
mystery of the empty tomb can satisfy the demands of rea- 
son and accord with the evidence. He is risen and become 
the First-fruits of those that have slept ; and when He comes 
again, they that are His will rise as a harvest of redeemed 
ones. 

The next stage in salvation is the union of the redeemed 
with their Redeemer — their acceptance by Him, when at His 
judgment-seat they have rendered a worthy account of their 
probation. In Him they have been justified from their old 
sins, which have been remitted at baptism ; in Him they have 
found a merciful and faithful High Priest during the time 
of their trial; and in Him they now stand perfect and com- 
plete, their redemption consummated in an emancipation 
from the tyranny of sin and the thralldom of death. They 
shall be like Him who is their Head. Having been sanctified 
in Him, they shall now be made consubstantial with Him in 
nature; they shall be exalted to an equality with the angels, 
to die no more; they shall be made partakers of the divine 
nature, which shall never know decay. 



CHAPTER XIII. CONCLUSION 

In conclusion, let us briefly review the grounds that have 
been taken in the investigation of this subject, a subject of 
supreme importance to all who will be saved. Having, step 
by step, examined the details which are revealed as to the 
need, the means, and the result of the Atonement, let us sum 
up the things we have ascertained. 

It was the purpose of the Almighty in the creation of 
man to manifest in him His sovereign glory and majesty. 
In order to accomplish this. He made man free to choose 
between obedience and disobedience. Having placed him in 
a most delightful situation, and blessed him with all things 
that could minister to his needs — nay, more, that could 
shower upon him, in addition to things needful, an abun- 
dance of luxuries as well, He gave him one command as a 
test. This command was broken, and the man, in conse- 
quence, became death-doomed, condemned to return to the 
dust out of which he had been created, after a life of exclu- 
sion from the pleasures of Eden's garden and of toil in tilling 
the ground that it might bring forth food for him to eat. 

Man's condemnation on account of sin involved a loss of 
life, followed by a disintegration of the bodily organism and 
its resolution into its original component parts. It has been 
falsely supposed that for sin man was consigned to unending 
torment in the inconceivable agonies of perpetual fire, and 
that in this state of torture he is in the hands of an immortal 
fiend, the greatest enemy of God and man, a fallen arch- 
angel who rebelled against the God of heaven, and because 



164 THE ATONEMENT 

of his rebellion was cast out of heaven and into hell, to be 
tormented himself and the chief agent in tormenting others. 
This has been read into the Scriptures, instead of being 
revealed therein; and the divine record neither makes known 
to us this supposed Satan nor the hell which is supposed to 
be his domain. 

The revelation as to man's condition after death is that, 
being mortal, he loses life entirely and returns to that state 
of nothingness which preceded birth — such unconsciousness 
in death being the portion of both Just and unjust, and life 
again being obtainable only by means of resurrection. 

The world having been thus involved by its first parent in 
such a destiny, and being unable to rescue itself from its 
fallen condition, the abounding love and mercy of the Creator 
was manifested even at the time of Adam's sin, and a gracious 
provision was made for man's deepest needs ; a glorious scheme 
of redemption was conceived by the Almighty, wherein He 
might manifest all His holy attributes, rescue the human 
race from its otherwise hopeless condition, and exalt it to the 
blessedness and perfection which was at the first intended for 
it. Sin having entered into the world, God's purpose was not 
frustrated, but grace abounding was manifested for its ac- 
complishment in another way. A Eedeemer was prospectively 
provided, who should stand where Adam fell; who should, by 
obedience, undo the result of Adam's disobedience; and who 
should do it in such a way that though the grace abounded 
enough to include all, it would only be extended to those who 
recognized in the appointed Eedeemer, God's righteousness 
revealed. By an offering for sin, sin was put away; and for 
any to share in the efficacy of that offering, it is needful for 
them to recognize God's purpose as manifested therein. 
From Eden onwards, by type and by promise, the Redeemer 
was foreshadowed, until in due time He was manifested. 
The shadow of the cross reaches as far back as Eden. The 



CONCLUSIOj^ 165 

animals slain to provide a covering for the first human pair 
were typical of the offering of Christ as a covering for the 
world's sin; the lamb that God provided for Abraham to 
offer was typical of the Lamb which He had provided to 
take away the sin of the world; and the offerings in connec- 
tion with the law of Moses were dim shadows of the glorious 
substance that was to follow in Christ. 

This purpose had its origin in the abounding grace and love 
of the Creator. He was not so incensed against the creatures 
that His hand had formed that it was needful for One equal 
to Himself to give Him ^^rigid satisfaction" for man's sin, 
and thereby appease his wrath. His love went forth towards 
His creatures and His compassion found expression in the 
prospective forgiveness of sin. Therefore Jesus, the Ee- 
deemer, was not the Second Person of a co-equal Trinity, 
who put Himself in man's stead, that God's wrath might 
spend itself oh Him in order to free man; but He was raised 
up by God from among His brethren, and made strong by 
God for the redemption of mankind. Before His birth at 
Bethlehem He had no personal existence, though pointed to 
and spoken of from the foundation of the world. 

When the Redeemer was made manifest He was proved to 
be above all else, both by His words and by His works. He 
alone succeeded in keeping God's law. He only was suc- 
cessful in rendering a full obedience to God ; and it w^as this 
obedience, manifested even unto death, that was effectual to 
redemption. It was necessary that that obedience should ex- 
tend even to the death on the cross; but it was because God, 
in His all-wise arrangement, chose to forgive sins by means 
of sacrifice, that the death of Christ was necessary, and not 
because sacrifice merely as sacrifice is well-pleasing unto Him. 
Sacrifice is only well-pleasing to God when it is the outcome 
of an upright heart. 

Because of obedience, Jesus has been exalted to be a Prince 



166 THE ATONEMENT 

and a Savior, to be the Author of eternal life to those who 
trust in Him. When He died for man's sin, His obedience 
was effectual to His own redemption from death, and His 
exaltation to an incorruptible nature; and it will be effectual 
to raising many others to the same glorified condition. He 
has been endowed with the power to confer the same unspeak- 
able gifts on the faithful, as have been bestowed on Him; 
His righteousness having been taken as a perfect Atonement 
or covering for their sins, and they having been justified in 
Him, He will in due time change the bodies of their humili- 
ation, that they may be fashioned like unto His glorious 
body; He will raise them to an equality with the angels, and 
they shall die no more. 

In order to participation in the blessed results of Christ's 
Atonement, it is needful for sinful man to realize his con- 
dition by nature, and to have faith in the all-sufficiency of 
Christ's work for redeeming him therefrom. This faith must 
find expression in works, the first of which is baptism, 
whereby relationship with Christ is obtained, all former sins 
are forgiven, and a justified position in God's sight is at- 
tained. This justified position must be maintained by works 
of faith and holiness, and, in a conflict betw^een sin and 
righteousness, the endeavor must always be to subjugate the 
laws of the flesh to the laws of that mind which was in .Christ 
Jesus, to let Christ be formed anew in the sanctified one, and 
to re-present Him to the world. This endeavor must be con- 
tinued until the sleep of death, or the glorious advent of the 
Lord, shall terminate the period of probation. 

Then, when the trial is ended, and the Lord Jesus returns, 
the sleepers will be raised and the living united with them in 
one glorious throng; and after they shall have given to their 
Lord a satisfactory account of their probation, they shall be 
exalted to fellowship with Him in the felicity of eternal life 
and the glory that is associated therewith. They will be 



CONCLUSION 167 

among those whom John saw in vision in Patmos, of whom 
it is written : 

After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could 
number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood 
before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, 
and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salva- 
tion to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. 
And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the 
elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, 
and worshipped God, saying. Amen : blessing, and glory, and wisdom, 
and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our 
God forever and ever. ' Amen. And one of the elders answered, 
saying unto me, "What are these which are arrayed in white robes? 
and whence came they? And I said unto him. Sir, thou knowest. 
And he said to me. These are they which came out of great tribula- 
tion, and have washed their robes, and made them whi^e in the 
blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, 
and serve Him day and night in His temple; and He that sitteth on 
the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, 
neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any 
heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed 
them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God 
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes (Eev. 7: 9-17). 

One other point remains to be noticed in connection with 
redemption. When man was condemned to death, the ground 
also was cursed : ^'Cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in 
sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life ; thorns 
also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee" (Gen. 3 : 17, 18). 
When mankind is redeemed, the earth shall also be redeemed 
from its curse and clothed in more than Edenic splendor. 
All nature, both animal and vegetable, shall be redeemed. 
It is by the personal presence of the Lord Jesus in the earth 
again that all these blessings shall be brought about. When 
He returns He will take into His hands the government of 
the whole world, and with His redeemed ones will enter upon 
that work of regeneration which shall occupy His millennial 
reign. That millennium which has been the hope of all God's 



168 THE ATONEMENT 

saints, but which the sceptic has scoffed at for so long, is not 
far distant; and it will be then that those who have been 
redeemed from the nations of the earth during these ages 
of sin's supremacy shall enjoy complete redemption, and 
with their Lord shall assist in the glorious work of bringing 
all mundane things into harmony with God, of putting down 
every curse that now blights this earth, and of hastening on 
that blessed age when God shall be all in all. 

And when the blessings of that age shall have succeeded in 
emancipating the earth from every evil, when the millennium 
shall have performed its sanctifying work, when the righteous 
reign of Jesus and His saints shall have resulted in the sub- 
jugation of every foe; then shall be inaugurated the eternal 
stage of this world's glory, when all things shall be in unison, 
and no discordant note shall be heard evermore — when God 
shall be all in all. Of this thrice-blessed time John says : 

And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the 
tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they 
shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be 
their God. And Gcd shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and 
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall 
there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away 
(Eev. 21: 3, 4). 

All this has been made possibly for mankind through the 
Atonement of Christ Jesus, who in His great love to God 
and man, rendered perfect obedience to the divine will; and 
upon all who view aright the excellence of Christ Jesus, and 
are seeking in the divinely ordained way the redemption that 
is in Him, we would invoke the apostolic benediction: 

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our 
Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of 
the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do 
His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, 
through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever, Amen. 






